Edge of Chaos
by IamDonuttheWalrus
Summary: When the Magic Trio mess up a spell, Alistair decides he's had enough. He de-ages them and sends them to Hogwarts to help them get better control over their magic - and even takes a job himself as the sexy new History of Magic professor. But there's more to this than just magic, Arthur knows. The Ministry thinks it can control his school, does it? Ha! Look out Umbridge!
1. First Steps

**A/N: Now I know I should be working on my other story, but I hit a slump with that one and wanted to do this instead. Have fun dudes *salutes***

**Since Egypt has never spoken a word in canon material, he will be a mute here as well. More fun like that. **

**This chapter contains Romanian angst, Snarky ass Englishmen, and Sexy ass Scotsmen. And Norway. **

**This takes place in the Order of the Phoenix, mostly because I wanted to stick Scotland and Umbridge in a room together and see how it plays out. **

* * *

><p><strong>Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Hetalia. If I did, I would be doing better things than writing fanfictions, like reviving Fred Weasley or making a 2P episode. <strong>

* * *

><p>"Right, that tears it." Alistair growled, crossing his arms and glaring at the three nations in front of him. One of which was trying to put on a I-totally-didn't-do-it face; a mischievous Romanian, to be exact. Another one, Alistair's own little brother, was shuffling his feet back and forth, trying to hide the wand behind his back. The third, a cold Norwegian, was just staring impassively back up at Alistair, as though he could really care less about this.<p>

"That is the third time this week. Third bloody time that you've miscast a spell. I swear, you three have been getting worse and worse by the day. You've left me no other choice. I'm calling Albus." Alistair announced, and this raised a reaction from the younger sibling.

"A-Albus? You expect me to teach?" Arthur squeaked, and that's when he noticed Alistair creeping forward with a terrifying grin on his face. "…Alistair? …What're you doing? Alistair. SHTAP."

* * *

><p>"I hate you. So much." Arthur hissed, tugging and picking viciously at a poor loose string on his sleeve. Dmitri and Lukas growled and muttered their own agreements, but Alistair just kept up with his infuriatingly smug grin. They were currently standing out behind the Leaky Cauldron, at the entrance to Diagon Alley. Or, to Lukas, Dmitri, and Hassan, a dirty, worn out brick wall behind an even dirtier and even more worn out pub. Yes, Egypt was there as well, simply because Alistair didn't think Lukas would be enough to keep Dmitri and Arthur in check.<p>

And another thing? Dmitri, Lukas, Arthur, and Hassan had all been de-aged to fifteen years old, though Hassan was the only one who had been turned younger willingly. He knew that he, like the Magic Trio, could do magic, but he always seemed to have some sort of control over his that they didn't. But, since most of the other countries didn't believe in magic, he didn't flaunt his talents like the others did, though he was very curious about it. He was quite frankly excited about this whole going to…what was it…Pigfarts? Which was more than anybody else here could say. And he had to admit, their sour moods were putting him off quite a lot.

Ignoring Arthur, Alistair rolled up his sleeves and took his wand out of his pocket, turning to the group of teenagers behind him.

"Dmitri, Lukas, Hassan, you three have never been to Diagon Alley before, have you?" He asked, and Dmitri nodded, Lukas grunted, and Hassan remained silent. Alistair took that as an agreement, and ignoring Arthur's constant growling of "bloody highlander" and "jackass", tapped his wand a few times on a certain brick. Immediately the wall began to shiver and change, bricks sliding in and out place with a pleasing pinging and cracking noise, to create a brilliant archway.

Every fifteen year old, whether they'd seen it before or not, had an expression of pure awe on his face…save for Lukas. He just raised an eyebrow coolly. Alistair shoved them all through before they could properly process what they were seeing, and Dmitri turned his head back to see the brick wall shift back into place behind them. Not caring that one of his fangs was peeking over his lip, he grinned. That was so wicked.

"Firs' things firs'. Yer wands." Alistair said bluntly, hurrying them to the oldest shop on the street. Black paint was peeling off of it, and dust so thickly coated the windows that it was nearly impossible to see inside. Squinting up at the sign above the store, Lukas was barely able to make out the name. _Ollivander's: Makers of Fine Wands since 395 B.C._

The others didn't get a chance to read it, since Alistair opened the door with a flourish, making the little bell above the door ring.

"After ye." He smirked at Arthur's evil glare, and just waited silently until all four teenagers had entered the shop. Dmitri glanced around curiously, barely containing his excitement at being here. His fingers were twitching anxiously, just dying to try every single wand in the vicinity. Lukas kept his face indifferent, but on the inside he was just as anxious as Dmitri was. Hassan was staring at everything wide-eyed, resisting the urge to hold onto one of the other boy's sleeves for fear of losing them in this odd, new place. Arthur was still too busy fuming at Alistair, who had settled down in the rickety wooden chair by the window and looked ready for a quick nap.

Ollivander emerged from a dusty old corner, his silvery gray eyes shining in the dim light and scaring the living daylights out of the boys.

"Ah yes, Alistair! Good to see you!" He exclaimed, and Alistair grinned cockily, getting up from the chair and shaking hands heartily with Ollivander, whom every boy nation there was now filing under 'creepy old guy'. "I trust these are yours, then?" Ollivander asked curiously, peering sagely at the boys, who took an almost unconscious step back.

"No, just this one." Alistair chuckled, wrapping a sneaky arm around Arthur's shoulders and pulling him forward.

"Right then, we'll start with him." Ollivander smiled, and Arthur shot many a loathing glare back at Alistair, who just smirked and sat back down in the chair. He seemed to be the only one who was comfortable here in the dusty shop; indeed, Lukas, Dmitri, and Hassan had almost subconsciously huddled closer together, watching the corners carefully in case anyone else was hiding there. "Hold out your wand arm, young man, and we'll get started."

"Wand arm?" Dmitri whispered.

"The arm you write with." Lukas answered coldly, and Dmitri nodded.

"Oh."

Arthur did as told, watching with casual interest as an enchanted tape measure began to measure the length of his arm, how tall he was, how far apart his eyes were, how wide his chest was, even the distance between his chin and collarbone. The three behind him were staring unabashedly at the tape measure, having never seen anything like it before. Meanwhile, Ollivander was scurrying about his shop, checking boxes seemingly at random and muttering to himself.

"That's quite enough now…" He announced loudly, and the tape measure curled up and dropped to the floor, seemingly lifeless. Ollivander handed Arthur a box, and so began the long tirade of wand try-outs for the Englishman.

_First: Jumped out of his hand._

_Second: Refused to get out of the box._

_Third: Dissolved._

_Fourth: Exploded._

_Fifth: Melted into a green blob that stuck to the floor._

"A challenge, then? Don't worry, we'll find the right one."

_Sixth: Sent Ollivander's desk flying back into the wall._

_Seventh: Made the plant in the corner burst into flames._

_Eighth: Sent lightening at the ceiling…without Arthur even touching it at all._

_Ninth: Started screaming for no reason._

_Tenth: Grew wings and flew away._

_Eleventh: Snapped in two._

_Twelfth: Suddenly became very heavy and fell to the floor, creating a large dent._

At this point, Arthur was becoming very frustrated, especially with Dmitri snickering at the 'heavy wand' incident. Alistair was smirking again, and Arthur was not happy about it one bit. Hassan looked a bit wary about being here now, and Lukas' mouth was twitching at the corners at Arthur's frustration.

"Picky customer…I wonder…" Ollivander muttered to himself, then he disappeared into a very far corner, looking over boxes that had long been buried in cobwebs and dust. Dmitri took this golden opportunity.

"Heavy wand…oh, that's just priceless…!" He gasped, doubling over in laughter as Lukas chuckled and Hassan smiled as well. Arthur tried his very best to ignore them, but his ears turned red in anger and embarrassment.

"Alistair, I never thought to ask, but what's your wand's core?" He inquired, and Alistair raised an eyebrow, pleasingly surprised that Arthur had asked. He looked at Arthur's wide, honestly curious eyes, and added this to the pathetically small pile labelled 'Actual Moments that Arthur Acted Brotherly Towards Me'.

"Oak, thirteen inches…'s got a dual core. Both of 'em are rare, so dornt go thinkin' ye'll git a special wand jus' cuz Ah did." Alistair growled, and Arthur rolled his eyes. "It's Demon and Angel feathers. Ta be honest, it's one a yer feathers. Plucked it from ye when ye were a wee bairn." He admitted, and Arthur's eyes widened.

"…Whoa…" He breathed, looking at Alistair with a bizarre kind of admiration in his eyes. Alistair raised his eyebrows again, looking at him confusedly. Fortunately, Ollivander returned at that moment with a dusty old box and saved Alistair from coming up with a witty reply.

"Here, try this one. Its dual cored like Alistair's; Unicorn hair and phoenix feather. Elm, eleven inches. Good for defensive spells and rather bendy." Ollivander explained, taking it out of the box.

"Oh God, now his wand is flexible and heavy…!" Dmitri whispered to himself, barely stifling his laughter even as Lukas elbowed him in the stomach. Arthur only had a moment to admire the wand's sleek, shiny black wood before it was shoved into his hands by Ollivander. Almost immediately, a strange warmth spread up his arm, and he hesitantly gave it a wave.

A few shards of wood from Ollivander's broken desk assembled themselves in response, only taking a few seconds to form a miniature pirate ship, which floated into the air and sailed around, the air rippling like water in its wake. Alistair clapped, honestly impressed with that show and the other boys each had their own way of showing their awe. Dmitri clapped too, Lukas whistled lowly and Hassan chuckled, amused by Arthur's surprised and very pleased expression.

"That's rather impressive, Mr…?" Ollivander asked, and Arthur jumped, almost completely forgetting he was there.

"Arthur." He answered meekly, and Ollivander nodded, clasping his hands together and turning back to the other three.

"Who's next?"

And so began Dmitri's pile of unusable wands, which was unsurprisingly larger than Arthur's. While Lukas and Hassan watched, anxious for Dmitri to get a wand so that they could get their's, Arthur chased down his pirate ship and caught it after a few moments of trying.

"That was so cool." He muttered to himself, a goofy grin on his face as he looked proudly at the little thing he created. He wasn't surprised at all that the ship was a perfect scale model of the Queen Anne's Revenge.

"Way to go, little brother." He heard behind him, and he turned around to see Alistair standing behind him, a proud grin on his face instead of his normal pompous one. Arthur's cheeks tinted red in embarrassment, and he scowled half-heartedly at Alistair, trying not to smile.

"I guess." He muttered, and Alistair put on a look of fake hurt.

"Aww, are we all done being brothers now?" He asked sarcastically, and Arthur glared at him.

"Let's not forget…" He started, keeping his voice low. "When I was fifteen, I thought you were the coolest thing ever. But you're still an asshole." He growled, and Alistair snickered.

"Always will be." He chuckled, and Arthur sighed, just barely managing to dodge Dmitri's seventeenth wand, which decided to chuck itself at the wall, javelin style. Dmitri at least had the decency to look sorry about nearly impaling Arthur, even though he was trying desperately not to smile.

"Could you be…Hold on." Ollivander said abruptly after a brief moment of thought, and he ran back over to the shelf where he dug up Arthur's wand. He then promptly returned holding another box. "Here, this one seems to like you. Another one with a dual core, this time it's dragon heartstring and the hair of a Nightmare Horse. Very odd combination, but give it a shot. Willow, eleven and a half inches. Nice and rather pliable." Cautiously, Dmitri took it and a surprised look came over his face for a short moment, to be replaced by a look of newfound determination.

He waved it experimentally, and a fine golden mist spread out from the tip of his wand, taking only a few seconds to form into a flurry of bats, which then flew about the room, screeching and twittering before dissolving into the air.

Dmitri just grinned and moved to the front of the shop where Alistair and Arthur were waiting.

It took Lukas about twice as long as Dmitri to find a suitable wand, and his turned out to be another one with a double core.

"Twelve and a quarter inches, with a rather unusual wood as well as core. It's palm, which is very odd…troll whisker and the heartstring of a rather grumpy Norwegian Ridgeback…go on then!" He barked, seeing Lukas' disbelieving look. Troll whisker? He slumped his shoulders and sighed, resigning himself to his fate. He waved it disinterestedly, and to his surprise, a transparent green city appeared on the floor; one he recognized well. Asgard.

After a few moments of staring at the shimmering green city, it disappeared into smoke, and Lukas politely thanked Ollivander before hurrying over to Arthur and Dmitri, who were smirking triumphantly.

"I'm SO telling Mathias." Dmitri whispered loudly, winking at Lukas, who shoved him backwards in response. Now, it was just Hassan left, and it was obvious he wasn't so sure about this. After all, he knew he could do magic, but he'd never seen anything like this before. A whole community, hidden in plain sight! He was pretty nervous about the whole deal. What if he never got a wand? What if he spent the whole day here, trying and trying until every single box had been emptied and it had been decided that he wasn't magic enough?

Ollivander, deciding to be kind to the poor lad, just went straight for the dual cored wands this time. He came back after nearly three minutes of searching.

"Now, this one is one of the most unusual wands I have here. Cypruss tree, twelve inches, with the hair of a Chimera and supposedly, a scale of Apophis." Seeing Hassan's eyes widen in shock, he added, "Of course, Egypt's magical creatures are rare, and so this may just be a scale of a regular dragon. But just in case…" He mused, handing the now open box out to Hassan.

With trembling hands and sweat beading on his forehead, he took the wand out of the box. Before he could even wave it, three pyramids grew from the floor, and the temperature in the room increased suddenly. Seeing Hassan nearly melt in relief, Alistair cleared his throat as Ollivander began to mutter to himself again.

"How much for the lot?" He asked, digging his wallet out of his pocket.

"Hmm? Oh, thirty Galleons." Ollivander replied, and Alistair handed over the money and thanked him. They then left the shop, leaving Ollivander still muttering. Once fully back into the light of day (which Dmitri found curious, as it had been overcast before they entered the alley) Dmitri turned to Arthur.

"…My wand's longer than yours."

Alistair spent a good portion of time after that restraining Arthur, who looked on the verge of murdering the Romanian. In order to pacify him, he took the lot to Florence and Fortescue's for some ice-cream before dragging them to the next shop, which turned out to be Madam Malkins. Alistair did refuse to buy blood-red robes for Dmitri, and hurriedly got them out of there before someone blew something up. Hustling the four of them around Diagon Alley was a lot more work than Alistair had previously thought it would be, but luckily Lukas and Hassan still had some inkling of self-control left.

Hassan wished he was part spider. His neck was sore not five minutes into their journey from constantly swiveling back and forth between shops. At the very end of the street was a large, white marble building that gleamed and shined in the midday sun. Two red blotches stood guard on each side of the impressive doors, but he was too far away to really discern what they were.

"Gringotts." Alistair said, seeing Hassan staring avidly at the bank. Seeing the Egyptian's questioning look, Alistair explained, "It's a bank, run by goblins. Safest place in the magical world…besides Hogwarts, o'course." He said proudly, and Hassan blinked. Goblins? They actually had goblins here?

"You'd have to be insane to try and rob that bank." Dmitri suddenly cut in, still licking his strawberry ice cream cone avidly. "I heard they have dragons guarding the high security vaults; is that true?" He asked Alistair, his eyes gleaming in excitement. Alistair shrugged casually, but smirked in a way that set Hassan on edge.

"Why don't you go find out?" Alistair snarked, and Dmitri snorted and shook his head fervently.

"Not even I'm that nuts." He replied, and Alistair nodded.

"Good lad." He said with a faint smile, dragging the group off to the apothecary.

When they were crossing the wide cobblestone street, a group of teenage, giggly witches swept through the alley, all wearing pink t-shirt with The Salem Witches Institute printed on them. There was a brief scuffle trying to break through them, but the group of nations eventually did. Though, not all in the same spot.

Blushing horribly and wiping himself of dirt (he got knocked over in all the chaos), Dmitri looked around for the rest of his group.

But they weren't anywhere to be seen.

Dmitri looked left. He looked right. He looked to. He looked fro. He looked up and down and every direction he could from that one spot his legs were suddenly glued to, but he couldn't see his friends. Not even Alistair's brilliant red hair could be spotted above the crowd. Feeling a little bubble of panic well up in his chest, Dmitri focused on his breathing, running over a mental checklist in his head.

So…he was lost and alone in the middle of Diagon Alley, which was Arthur's magical thoroughfare. They were headed off to the apothecary…but Dmitri didn't know where that was. He didn't remember passing that shop on the way in. Was it just him, or did the street suddenly get much longer than it used to be?

Of course, his stubborn pride wouldn't let him ask for directions, and he seriously doubted that anyone would be willing to help him thanks to…well, looking the way he did. People were already shooting him distrusting looks as they walked, and he clenched his mouth shut to try and hide his fangs better. It really wasn't his fault his culture was so vampire-centric! He wasn't a vampire! Sagging his shoulders and sighing, Dmitri resigned himself to just walking around aimlessly until he was either found by Alistair or he found them first. Besides, his ice-cream cone was starting to melt.

Shoving a hand in his pocket, he strolled around, doing his best to ignore all the looks he was getting. He hung out for a while in front of the broom shop, staring at the latest models in quiet fascination. It was still weird to him; why on earth would you enchant a household cleaning instrument to fly? He never really understood that part. Like, why a broom? Why not a couch, or a bed so that you can lay down while you fly? He moved out of the way when a crowd of children surrounded the window, ogling at the brooms and pressing their faces against the glass. He saw that he was scaring them just by being there, he could easily see, and the parents were glaring at him pointedly. But he was used to that.

Soon, he finished his ice-cream cone. About halfway through it, he realized that picking strawberry flavor probably wasn't the wisest move on his part, considering the whole…vampire thing.

He loitered around inside Eyelops Owl Emporium, finding the hooting and rustling to be calming somehow. He really liked a particular barn owl and it seemed to return the favor, gently cooing and nipping at his fingers affectionately whenever Dmitri would stroke it through the golden bars of its cage. It was when he was occupied with the bird when it started.

He heard the small noise of a throat clearing behind him, but assumed that whoever it was had been trying to get somebody else's attention. After all, nobody would probably be caught dead talking to him in public.

There was relative silence for a while, but then, a sharp pain shot through his arm and he let out a strangled scream as he was jerked away from his owl. His head turned to see the man who was working behind the counter earlier glaring daggers into his soul, the man's fingernails digging into the flesh on his forearm. The pain was starting to make Dmitri's eyes water, but he stood his ground.

"What do you think you're doing to me birds, freak?" The man (his nametag identified him as Roy) snarled, shaking Dmitri roughly and making him whimper and bite his lip in agony. Dmitri's head was reeling from the shock and pain, and he didn't quite comprehend Roy's words at first.

"F-Frea…? Wha?" Dmitri mumbled, and Roy's blue eyes hardened, his face turning purple in rage.

"Damn right you're a freak. We don't serve your kind here! Who let you in anyways? Vampires ain't allowed past the archway, monster." Roy shouted, and it all clicked in Dmitri's head. Oh. Ooohhhh. Dmitri's eyes began to water with much more than pain now, but he tried to yank himself away, but Roy had a grip like iron. Glancing around in panic, Dmitri spotted a family of three standing by the counter; a small girl and her parents. Suddenly, it all made sense.

The father was looking at Dmitri with smug satisfaction, his arms crossed haughtily over his chest. The mother was staring at him in fear and revulsion, and the little girl was watching him in terrified curiosity. He had been scaring the girl.

Roy snapped Dmitri's attention back to the real problem by reaching into his pocket and grabbing something. Something shiny…Dmitri's eyes widened in horror. Who the hell carried a knife on them in an Owl store?!

Dmitri's long instilled fight-or-flight instincts immediately kicked in his panic, and he began to shout and struggle and curse with all his might. He felt a pang of guilt go through his heart when he saw the little girl shrink back behind her parents, terrified of him, but what could he do? He would never take something like this lying down! This Roy guy was clearly overreacting! He was just petting an owl! He knew what he looked like, but…it wasn't his fault.

"Roy, what's all the-?" A new person who was wearing the staff uniform poked their head out of the back room, obviously trying to figure out what exactly Roy was screaming about. When they saw Roy, holding a knife to the throat of a teenager, his eyes widened in horror, but they immediately hardened when they saw exactly what that teenager was. The other staff member immediately drew his wand, and Dmitri gasped.

"No! This is just a misunder-! No! I'm not a vam-!" He shouted desperately, trying with renewed vigor to escape Roy's grip. His shirt ripped along the sleeve from his efforts, but Roy was anything but letting go as he raised the knife.

White-hot pain raced up and down Dmitri's arm, the knife slicing through his flesh as though it was butter, and he screamed, stars exploding in front of his eyes.

Outside the Emporium, passerby were stopping and staring in horror at the dark shop. They couldn't see what was happening inside, but there was an awful amount of screaming and shouting coming from the interior. Was a Death Eater attacking? None of them knew, but they certainly weren't staying long enough to find out, and they quickly continued on their way, not wanting to get involved.

However, one particular plump, red-haired woman stuck around longer than most, her heart and mind debating furiously against each other. The screams that were emanating from the Emporium were obviously that of a young boy, and being the mother of six boys, couldn't ignore it. But on the other hand, if it really were Death Eaters in there, sticking her nose in wouldn't be the best idea.

Without warning, the screams doubled in volume and frequency, and she couldn't stand by anymore. Dropping her luggage on the pavement and rolling up her sleeves, grabbing her wand as she did so, she set off towards the shop.

Before she could even reach the door, it slammed open by itself with a mighty bang, startling both the pedestrians on the street and the birds inside. A thick, burly man, holding a bloody knife in his left hand and a strawberry blonde teenager in his right appeared in the threshold. Roaring with fury, the man threw the teen hard onto the pavement, brandishing the knife as a warning.

"And don't come back, freak!" Roy spat, slamming the door behind him as he disappeared back into his store. The teen didn't say anything, simply scrambling to his feet, tears shining in his eyes and on his face. Rage boiled in Molly Weasley as she saw the torn shirt, the blood coating the teen's right arm, his disheveled hair, teary eyes, and all the blood on his back.

"How dare he…!" Molly hissed to herself as she watched Dmitri solemnly wipe his face dry with his intact sleeve, using his left arm to pinch the two halves of his shirt together. Passerby were staring openly and unashamedly at his misery, but not helping, and a protective urge overcame Molly.

"What are you lookin' at?" Dmitri mumbled when he saw her staring, trying to muster up a glare but failing. Molly's eyes softened, and she walked towards him slowly, noticing the way he traced her every move with his eyes, no doubt thinking she was going to hurt him as well.

"Are you alright?" She asked him softly, and he chuckled darkly, giving her a half-hearted shrug.

"What'd you think? I'm fine." He said just as quietly, his voice devoid of any emotions yet still shaking. He turned away from her, shakily walking away. "Jus' leave me alone…" He added, and Molly's heart twisted painfully in sympathy. Grabbing her dropped bags, she quickly caught up to his brisk pace. He glanced at her nervously when he saw her following him, but looked away as soon as she tried to catch his gaze.

"Why don't you let me get you something? You look like you could use a cheer-up right about now." She tried, and he grimaced as a couple glared at him pointedly.

"No thanks." He mumbled, wiping his face again after a fresh wave of tears. "Listen, if you know what's good for you, you should stay away from me…" He told her quietly, and Molly blinked.

"Why?" She asked in confusion, and he snorted.

"Don't want to be seen with a vampire." He said, gesturing to his fangs with his free hand, wincing as the movement agitated his wound.

"At least let me clean that up for you." Molly offered, holding up her wand. Dmitri sighed, tired and pissed and so not up for this. True, the thought that at least somebody cared warmed him slightly, but not enough. This was why nobody ever saw him anymore. This was why he never went to meetings and barely left his home, why he had no real friends besides Arthur, Lukas, (maybe Hassan?), and Alfred, why he couldn't stand looking into a mirror anymore. He was scared. Terrified.

"No, that's okay. I'm…used to this kind of thing." He sighed, swiping his fringe out of his red eyes. Admitting it –especially out loud- made the storm inside him even worse. Molly scowled, understanding the real meaning behind his words. To be honest, it wasn't until he made the vampire comment that she even noticed his fangs and red eyes. She knew what real vampires looked like, and he didn't even come close. "I…I just want to find my friends and leave."

Molly humphed, pulling out her wallet and checking it avidly. She had enough, but what she had was still a meager amount, and it would definitely put a strain on their expenses for a while, but it would be worth it.

"What's your name, sweetie?" She asked gently, and he sniffed.

"Dmitri." He replied shortly, and she put on her most caring smile.

"I'm Molly Weasley. Now tell me Dmitri, if you could have anything from this street, what would it be?"

Dmitri stopped dead in his tracks, looking at her with pure concern in his eyes.

"Y-You don't have to…I'm fine, really." He insisted, but she waved him off, glaring at him and placing her hands on her hips. Dmitri cowered under her stern gaze, her posture and attitude reminding him strongly of Hungary.

"You most certainly are not fine. Do you honestly plan to parade around in a torn shirt that's caked in blood all day?" She scolded, and he shifted uncomfortably, his back still burning and stinging horribly. His arm wasn't the only thing Roy cut with the knife…Molly grabbed him by the shoulders, staring at him in genuine worry.

"Please, let me help you. I've got six boys, and I know how stubborn they can be, so please." She whispered, and Dmitri hastily wiped away more tears with his shoulder, her kindness reaching to him in a way he couldn't explain in words. Molly took that as an okay, and pulled out her wand to begin cleaning him up.

"Not here." Dmitri suddenly whispered, grabbing her wrist in…was that fear or shame in his eyes? "You can help, just….not here." He elaborated, glancing around the street and the staring wizards and witches. He seemed to shrink into himself as he noticed all the stares and furious looks he was getting. This was without a doubt one of the worst days of his life so far, and he was just too tired to argue with this Molly Weasley anymore.

Molly looked befuddled, but nodded nonetheless, and let Dmitri lead her into a secluded alleyway. He sighed, self-consciously shrugging off what remained of his shirt. Molly mended it and cleaned it to the best of her ability, Dmitri staring pointedly at the ground behind her, melting into the shadows. When his shirt was cleaned, she turned to Dmitri.

"Now let me clean those wounds." She said, gesturing for him to come closer. Dmitri's eyes widened, and he shook his head, taking a step back in fright.

"Y-You don't…"

"Dmitri…" She warned, and he sighed, taking tiny steps towards her, his arms wrapped around himself. She didn't see what he was so worried about until he turned around. She gasped in horror and anger, her eyes screaming bloody murder as she started seeing red in her rage.

Carved into Dmitri's back with a practiced hand was the word. The word he hated with all his heart, the dreaded word that followed him, haunted him, everywhere he went, no matter what the circumstance. The word that started this whole mess in the first place.

_** FREAK**_

"Dmitri…" Molly breathed, and he flinched, trembling terribly.

"Don't." He whispered, as though he could sense her oncoming sympathies and condolences. When she opened her mouth again to argue, he shamefully dipped his head to the side. "Just don't."

Molly sighed but nevertheless said nothing, knowing how hurt he had to be. She set about cleaning and dressing his wounds in an awkward silence. Though she tried her best, those cuts were going to scar, leaving that horrible word burned onto him for the rest of his life. When she was done here, she was going to march right back to Eyelops and utterly murder that man who did this to him. Who would do this to a child? Dmitri seemed so shy and sweet, there was no way he had been doing something to warrant that kind of punishment. If that man treated him like this just because of the way he looked…!

When she was done, Dmitri slipped his shirt back on, awkwardly shuffling back and forth.

"Thank you." He finally said, not quite sure what to say to this kind, strange woman who cared so much about him. Before he could blink three times, she swept him into a gentle hug, holding him close, and it took all of Dmitri's self-control not to break down crying right then and there.

"It was nothing." She smiled, pulling away, and he blushed pointedly, looking at the ground again. Already in his mind he was going over various ways to thank her properly for her kindness. "One last thing, Dmitri." She said suddenly, rifling through her wallet. "Have you got yourself a pet?" She asked, and he sighed, wanting to deny her kindness again, but knowing by now that she would insist.

"No…" He admitted, knowing that even if he said yes, she would probably buy him something else.

"Well if you come with me you'll soon have one." Molly grinned, grabbing his wrist and practically dragging him out of the alleyway towards the Magical Menagerie. They got plenty of weird looks, especially Dmitri, but one glare from Molly would put the pedestrian in their place.

Twenty minutes later, the two of them emerged, Dmitri with a cardboard box with holes poked in it, and Molly with a significantly lighter wallet. Despite how shitty his day had been, Dmitri was still grinning from ear to ear. He couldn't stop thanking her, much to her amusement. As they started their way towards the Apothecary, Dmitri was suddenly tackled by Arthur.

"WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN WE'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR YOU EVERYWHERE ARE YOU ALRIGHT JESUS CHRIST DMITRI DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW WORRIED I'VE BEEN ALISTAIR IS WORRIED SICK AND I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU WOULD WANDER OFF LIKE THAT WHEN YOU KNOW THE SITUATION AND OH MY GOD-!" Arthur screamed, all in one breath. Dmitri looked down at the Brit who was clinging to him desperately and grinned a bit. Lukas and Hassan then rounded the corner, Hassan breaking into a grin when he saw Dmitri, and Lukas giving an almost audible sigh of relief.

"Hey Arthur." Dmitri said, a bit more subdued than normal, and Molly cleared her throat.

"Are these the friends you were talking about?" She asked, her eyes twinkling in amusement and Dmitri blushed again and nodded, trying with difficulty to pull Arthur off of him and hold his box at the same time.

"Are you okay?" Lukas asked bluntly, noticing that Dmitri's eyes were puffy and tinged with red, his skin paler than normal, his tousled hair, and most importantly, his sad demeanor. Dmitri didn't do sad. "And I swear to Odin, if you say you're 'fine', I will cut you open with a rake." He added, seeing Dmitri practically close in on himself. Dmitri sighed, knowing that he was going to have to tell him sooner or later, just…not now.

"I'm better now at least." Dmitri answered, smiling at Molly, and it was her turn to blush.

"It was nothing." She smiled at Lukas, who nodded politely at her as though he just noticed her there. Dmitri finally succeeded in prying Arthur away from his person, only to have Hassan take his place. Luckily, Hassan just gave him a quick 'I missed you' hug instead of a crushing death grip like Arthur. Love for his friends swelled in Dmitri's chest, and he held it back with difficulty.

"Where's Alistair?" Dmitri asked Lukas, since Arthur was still muttering to himself and wringing his hands.

"He went to search Knockturn Alley for you. He should be back any-"

"DMITRI!" Alistair's voice suddenly thundered and Dmitri barely had time to even turn around before he was pulled into a bone-crushing, cinnamon smelling hug. Alistair knocked the box Dmitri was carrying out of his hands, but luckily Lukas caught it before it could slam into the cobblestone street. Whatever was inside mewled in annoyance. "ARE YOU ALRIGHT NO YOU ARE NOT I CAN TELL YOU'RE HURT AREN'T YOU I'M SO GLAD I FOUND YOU YOUR SISTERS WOULD HAVE KILLED ME!" Alistair shouted, much like his younger brother.

"F-Fine…need….air!" Dmitri gasped, struggling for breath in Alistair's iron grip. Alistair looked up to see a very confused yet entertained Molly Weasley, who blushed when she saw how handsome he was. Letting Dmitri go suddenly, he walked up to her, grinning widely.

"You helped him didn't you?" Alistair deduced aloud, and Molly nodded shyly, twirling her hair. Alistair took her hand and kissed it in gratitude, and Molly giggled like a little schoolgirl. Lukas rolled his eyes and Arthur pretended to vomit onto the sidewalk, which made Hassan snicker uncontrollably. Tuning out Alistair and Molly, who were now arguing over whether or not Molly deserved payment for helping Dmitri, Lukas looked down at the box in his arms. Whatever was inside was fairly light, like a puppy, and was shifting around, poking a wet black nose out of the holes in the box and sniffing curiously.

"What's in here, Dmitri?" He asked aloud, and Dmitri jumped, startled. Arthur, Lukas, and Hassan all gave him strange looks; since when was Dmitri surprised when people talked to him? Arthur and Hassan shared a dark look. Whatever happened to him when they got separated affected him in the worst way, and by Dobby's socks, they were going to find out what happened. They could see it in his eyes. He was scared. Behind that crimson fire and energy he always had in his eyes was terror and something even worse. Sadness. And the way he kept glancing over his shoulder and gripping at his left arm…

Fear and depression clashed so badly with Romania's normal personality that it was making all of them queasy just being near him.

Recovering quickly, Dmitri smiled brightly, taking the box back from Lukas.

"It's a baby Zburator." He said proudly, and Arthur's massive eyebrows shot up into his hairline. A Zburator? Blimey, he hadn't seen one of those in about two centuries! He thought they'd gone extinct. Judging by the look on Lukas' face, he thought so too. Hassan just had a confused frown. Seeing this, Arthur explained.

"They're like a cross between dragons and wolves. If I'm correct, they used to be a symbol of power and nobility in Romania." He said, straining his mind, and Dmitri nodded.

"That, and they look really cool." He said happily, sticking his fingers into one of the holes and stroking the pup lovingly. It purred gently at him, and he smiled.

"I thought you would have gotten a bat…" Lukas frowned. The reaction was immediate. Dmitri's whole body stiffened, his eyes widened, and he went drastically pale. As much as he wished it to, this reaction did not go unnoticed by his friends, who all scowled. Who the hell would do this to him? They knew him, and they all knew, without a doubt, that he hadn't been doing anything to warrant mistreatment. He was mischievous, sure, but never cruel.

"W-Well…I was going to…but…" Dmitri whispered, but whatever he was going to say was cut off by Alistair, clapped his hand on Arthur's shoulder.

"We still got loads a shopping to do, so shall we go?" He quipped cheerfully, and Arthur glared at him viciously, growling at the hand on his shoulder with eyes full of hate. Dmitri nodded, grateful for the interruption, though the remaining scowl on Lukas' face told him that he was going to have to explain at some point.

Arthur seemed to be adamant on getting an owl, (his last one died a few months ago. A moment of silence for Lancelot; he will always be in our hearts.) but Dmitri point blank refused to go inside Eyelops with the group. He wouldn't explain why, though the rest of them had a sneaking suspicion that this store was part of the reason why Dmitri was suddenly so scared to be out in public. In fact, the Romanian refused point blank to even be near the store. Seeing the Dmitri was not going to budge in his horror, he gave him a handful of Galleons and sent him and Hassan to buy cauldrons while Arthur shopped for his bird.

"Stop looking at me like that, Hassan." Dmitri finally sighed when they walked out of the store, four collapsible pewter cauldrons stuffed into Alistair's hammerspace backpack. Ironically, Alistair had styled the pack like the TARDIS. All the UK brothers were incredibly fond (and jealous) of the bag. Though he could say nothing, the stare Hassan had been boring into the back of Dmitri's head was driving him up the wall. He wanted to be alone right now. He wanted to go home and curl up with his cat, call up Bulgaria and drink his troubles away. But he was fifteen now and didn't know how to get back to normal, which meant no alcohol until the end of the school year.

Hassan shot him a very demanding look, and Dmitri scowled.

"No, I'm not saying what happened. Not now. Not here." He hissed, and Hassan coolly raised an eyebrow. "You can't make me tell." He growled, and Hassan rolled his eyes, making a face at him. "Not happening." Dmitri replied, quickly walking to where Alistair now stood, tapping his foot impatiently.

"You got everything?" He asked, and Dmitri nodded, looking curiously at the barn owl perched on Arthur's shoulder, which was grooming his hair affectionately.

"Dmitri, Hassan, this is Gwen." Arthur announced proudly, and the owl hooted in greeting.

"Must you always name your owls after characters of Arthurian legend?" Lukas muttered, but the corner of his lip was twitching upwards. Arthur nodded adamantly, and Alistair smirked. Wow, did he miss Guinevere. She was damn hot for girls in that era…

"Anything else we need?" Lukas asked, and Alistair scratched his chin, pulling the list from his jacket pocket.

"Ye got yer robes, wands, cauldrons…ye still need textbooks, potion starter kits, a star map for Astronomy, and…oh yeah, Lukas and Hassan still need pets." He said to himself. Lukas was about to protest that he didn't want a pet since he had his troll, but he knew better than to argue against Alistair. Hassan perked up at that. He wasn't allowed to bring Anubis to Hogwarts, since she got skittish around crowds.

The rest of the afternoon passed in a blur. Dmitri was uncharacteristically silent for the whole three hours they spent there, only quietly pointing out items in shops and talking to his Zburator in Romanian. Everyone kept shooting him concerned glances, and he was obviously getting fed up with it. As the day went on, he got quieter and quieter, until he didn't say a word, even when they asked him questions or tried to make small talk.

Arthur, being the expert in body language that he was, noted every little thing Dmitri did, everything that was so unbearable NOT Dmitri.

He kept his shoulders hunched in at all times, his red eyes fixed firmly on his sneakers. Occasionally he would grab on to Hassan or Alistair's sleeve and follow the group like that, because he refused to look up, even to see where he was going. Hassan was worried, but didn't seem to mind this behavior. Alistair on the other hand would give him a very, very surprised and concerned look, becoming flustered, but he would let Dmitri hang on for as long as he wanted. Every time Dmitri did this, Arthur and Lukas would share looks, letting their eyes speak for them.

_Why does he do that?_

_ He's scared, Arthur. _

_ I know, but…of what?_

_ I think it's a who, actually. Do you see the way he's sticking close to Alistair? _

_ Yeah, but why? _

_ Because…I think, because Alistair is the adult here. The protector. _

_ Oh come on, since when did DMITRI need protection? _

_ You and I both know that Alistair is an ass, but he takes care of those under his care and guards them with his life. Dmitri knows that too. _

_ He's been avoiding everyone on this street besides us. He won't get within two feet of anyone else, did you notice?_

_ Duh. _

_ When I get my hands on whoever did this to him…_

_ I pity that person. Because they have you, me, and Alistair to deal with._

_ What about Hassan? _

_ I don't know. He's hard to read. _

"If you two could stop eyeballing each other, we're here." Alistair grumbled, pointing to the Magical Menagerie. He handed Lukas and Hassan thirty Galleons each, but went inside with them nonetheless to make sure they didn't buy anything that could kill. This left Arthur and Dmitri outside the shop, Dmitri still holding his cub and Arthur with Gwen still perched on his shoulder. While they waited Arthur had a frown on his face the entire time, watching Dmitri slowly shrink in on himself. Every time a shopper passed by the two, Dmitri would duck his head and not-so-subtly hide behind Arthur.

"Dmitri, stop it." Arthur growled, shoving Dmitri back out from behind him, a bit too roughly perhaps. Dmitri said nothing. "And stop that whole silence thing. Hassan is already mute, and you and I both know Lukas is a terrible conversation partner." He said, trying for a joke, but Dmitri didn't smile. And he still said nothing.

Arthur hated this. He could clearly see Dmitri collapsing inwards, becoming more and more withdrawn with every word Arthur spoke. He felt like grabbing Dmitri by the shoulders and screaming in his face, but he knew that would only make it worse.

"Dmitri, why the hell won't you speak?" Arthur demanded, putting his hands on his hips in a way so similar to Alistair and Molly Weasley that Dmitri almost smiled. But he couldn't find the energy. He could barely stand right now. He wanted to be alone. What was the point of explaining? They wouldn't understand. Their citizens smile and wave and flock to them, not spit on them and avoid them like the plague. People were never scared of them.

"Why won't you ever tell us what's wrong?" Arthur asked softly, but Dmitri kept his face deathly blank, like a corpse. He doesn't understand. He will never understand. His citizens never tied him up and tried to burn him at the stake. They never tied his limbs together and tied rocks to his feet and threw him in a lake. Arthur never had his stomach cut open, his insides replaced with stones and tossed over a cliff. They couldn't know what he'd been through. They couldn't understand. He wanted to be alone.

Every last memory Dmitri had of his own people hating him and hurting him was flooding through his mind like a tsunami and it made him want to scream until his throat bled. How could Arthur know? How could any of them know?

That's why he liked his Zburator so much, even though he just met him. The cub didn't care what he looked like. The cub loved him no matter what.

Dmitri was saved by a full-on interrogation when Lukas and Hassan exited the store, Alistair close behind them. Lukas was holding a snow white monkey-like creature with large tusks, Hassan had simply chosen a black cat. He was normally a dog person, but he loved cats a lot. Alistair, surprisingly, was holding a birdcage with a white cloth over it, smugly grinning at all of them like he just found Atlantis.

"To the Leaky Cauldron."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Now, if you think I'm laying on the angst too thickly, I agree, but to be honest, people in the dark ages were terrified of anything that looked mildly evil, like say...people with red eyes. In a time where the church ruled, red eyes were demonic, so people's reactions to Dmitri back then were considered normal. (I have nothing against the church, I'm just pointing this out; people were very superstitious back then.)**

**So, what do you think? Good? Bad? Ugly? Potato? **

**Review please! I love you all! Thanks for taking the time to read this! **

**Draco dormiens nunquam convehunt, filli.**


	2. Jump

**A/N: Swiggity Swapter here's another chapter**

**This did take longer than I had originally planned, and I'm sorry for that, but I hope its up to your standards. There's a lot of jumping around in this chapter, but this is basically everyone getting ready for Hogwarts and Dmitri getting his life back. **

**There's some UK brother fluff here, and the appearance of the Hero!**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

><p>As soon as Alistair bought their rooms, the five of them headed straight upstairs to set down all their luggage and empty out the hammerspace bag. Lukas' little monkey, who turned out to be a baby Yeti, had its arms wrapped around his neck and was hanging there lazily, occasionally chittering and ruffling Lukas' hair, so the entire backside of Lukas' head was spiked and messy, much to his chagrin.<p>

Hassan's new cat was resting around his shoulders like a scarf, and whatever was in Alistair's birdcage was mewling. Alistair had rented three rooms; one for himself, and two for the four teenagers. Unfortunately, all three rooms only had one bed each, so the four kids would have to share with someone else, which they didn't mind. Arthur and Lukas took one room, so Hassan and Dmitri took the other. Which was awkward for both Hassan and Dmitri, since Dmitri was still not talking to anyone. The moment they entered the room, Dmitri let his Zburator out of the box and then promptly crawled under the bed, taking all the blankets with him.

Hassan blinked in confusion, but removed his cat from his shoulders and began to pack his trunk, which Alistair had pulled (with some difficulty) out of the TARDIS bag. The cat, whom he mentally named Hara, began to sniff the Zburator cub interestedly. Hassan sat down on the edge of his bed when he was finished packing, folding his hands and thinking.

Now, he didn't know Dmitri all that well; the Romanian never came to meetings anymore, and Egypt didn't get out much in the first place. But from what he'd seen and based on what others told him, Dmitri was usually loud, boisterous, mischievous, and carefree. And that's what he had been like at the beginning of the day.

What happened to him?

It was so quiet, he could barely detect the sound, but from under the bed, he heard tiny sobs. His eyebrows shot into his keffiyeh in surprise. Was he actually hearing this? He jumped off the bed and landed hard on his knees, looking under the bed, worry practically pouring off him in waves.

Dmitri could actually _feel _Hassan's pity. He didn't know how, he just _could._ It was pounding, smothering, like a giant's heartbeat. He wanted to scream. He didn't want Hassan to pity him. He wanted him to _stop_. It _hurt._ Why did it hurt? The feeling clung to Hassan's entire body like a cloak and Dmitri wanted nothing more than to just make it _go away._

**_ LEAVE ME ALONE_**

Hassan yelped internally. That voice –Dmitri's voice- was inside his head, screaming at him! That shouldn't be possible! Did wizards normally do that?! Getting over his surprise as quickly as he could, he looked back at Dmitri. He had all the blankets that were on the bed wrapped around him like a chrysalis, so only his eyes showed. Hassan leaned back a bit in fear. Dmitri's eyes were glowing. Glowing with power.

**_I WANT TO BE ALONE_**

**_GO AWAY_**

Hassan didn't need to be told twice. He grabbed Hara and the Zburator cub and ran out the door as fast as he could, his body being wracked with…something. Powerful waves were pulsing off Dmitri, stealing Hassan's breath and making it hard to run away. It felt like…having someone else's heart shoved in next to yours – crushing your lungs, using your blood, its heartbeat out of sync with yours and making it so very, very hard to think. The waves didn't feel evil, they just felt…sad, and lonely.

But damn, they hurt. They burned, into his very soul, and he felt guilty…about something. He didn't know what.

When he finally reached the door and sprinted out of the room, he nearly ran face-first into Alistair's broad chest. Alistair barely had time to give him a grunt of recognition before running into the bedroom; he had felt Dmitri giving off tiny emotional magic bursts ever since they got separated, but Dmitri had been keeping it under control…until now. Arthur and Lukas were hot on Alistair's heels, but Alistair shouted,

"You two give Hassan a magic check! Make sure he's not hurt!" Arthur and Lukas stopped, wanting to go in and help, but like everyone here, knew better than to argue with Alistair. They brought Hassan and the animals into their bedroom, leaving Dmitri to Alistair, no matter how much they wanted to help. Despite how much it hurt them to leave their friend.

**_GO AWAY_**

Alistair grimaced, the waves of raw energy surprisingly strong. He could actually see bright red waves bouncing off the walls, slamming into the bed and the cabinets and the wardrobe, making the whole room tremble. The window was cracking. He could hear them; a pounding, beating heartbeat, so bloody and raw and ALIVE that Alistair nearly fell to his knees from the pressure; a muggle would have died from simply being in the building.

But Alistair wasn't the most powerful wizard in history for nothing.

He built up his own waves, not even bothering to use his wand like he normally did when using this ancient, near-forgotten form of magic. He used his own emotions, calling on his rage and his fear and his hope, releasing in a pattern opposite to Dmitri's. He slowly, painstakingly slowly beat Dmitri's waves back into his body. He did so with anger, yelling and screaming with the raw energy inside him to knock Dmitri into submission.

Then, it was gone. Dmitri couldn't make the waves anymore, his body completely enveloped in Alistair's rage. Alistair's eyes softened; with the pulses gone, he could hear. He could hear Dmitri sobbing under the bed, whimpering and crying and choking out words the Scot couldn't hear. Alistair sighed…this wasn't really his forte, dealing with kids –that was normally Wales' job- but…

He slowly changed the anger into comfort, sending, soft gentle waves of calm instead, slowly releasing Dmitri from the anger's grip as he did so. Dmitri didn't even resist, didn't try to send out anymore pulses of energy. He just kept crying. While Alistair normally found the sound of crying to be annoying and grating on his ears, today, he found it heartbreaking.

"Come out from under the bed, Dmitri." He called softly, softer than he would ever admit, getting on his hands and knees to see Dmitri's trembling form. Two teary red eyes looked back at him, nearly hidden by a mess of strawberry blonde hair and the tangle of blankets.

"Why?" Dmitri whispered hoarsely, and Alistair shifted into sitting cross legged by the bed instead of crouching down like this –bad back in his age. Alistair patted the spot in front of him, and Dmitri shyly scooted forwards. Alistair waited until Dmitri was kneeling in front of him, still wrapped up in his cocoon of sheets and comforters.

"What did they do to you?" Alistair asked quietly, and Dmitri choked out a sob, drawing his blankets closer around himself but saying nothing. "Dmitri, answer me." Alistair insisted, and Dmitri shook his head violently, finally cracking and sobbing and screaming and-

Alistair gently grabbed Dmitri's head, pressing their foreheads together. He closed his eyes and concentrated, letting his mind flow into Dmitri's head. He found no resistance, and so continued, probing through Dmitri's recent memories.

What he found made his temper finally boil over.

His rage exploded out of him, shattering the window and blowing the door off its hinges and into hallway wall, cracking the mirror. In the room next door, Arthur, Lukas, and Hassan were cringing as they heard Dmitri crying, but when the rage wave hit them, they all immediately dropped onto their stomachs on the floor, the sheer power crushing them and making them tear up in fear.

**_KILL HIM_**

Alistair roared in their heads, and they all started shaking in terror. All their pets had retreated under the bed, even Guin, huddling together and trembling.

"Hoo daur he!" Alistair screamed, his accent becoming thicker and thicker in his fury. Dmitri, who had been getting a hold on his emotions while Alistair relived the memories, promptly burst into tears once more. Alistair immediately sobered up, reigning in his rage. Right. Calm Dmitri down first, murder Roy later.

He sent out calm again, awkwardly holding Dmitri on his lap as he rocked back and forth. He ran his fingers through Dmitri's hair, trying to remember what calmed Arthur down when he had a nightmare. If anybody walked in on this though, he'd wipe their memory. When Dmitri was calm enough, Alistair gently rubbed Dmitri's back for two reasons; one, he knew it helped himself to relax on bad days; second he could feel the word carved into Dmitri's back. When Alistair did this, Dmitri stiffened, but Alistair sent out more calm waves and he relaxed again.

He saw Dmitri's memories from Dmitri's perspective, so he didn't really know at first what Roy had done; all he got after Roy pulled out the knife was terror and confusion and self-hatred. And blood. So much blood.

God, he was going to absolutely murder that man tomorrow. Why tomorrow? Because he was tired. As soon as he was fully rested and awake, he would kill him. Alistair's brain was already racing with the most terrible ways to murder someone that he could think of…he was particularly fond of the one that involved…what were those things called again? Blast-Ended Skrewts? Yes…those things, a violin, and Arthur's scones. It's the perfect murder.

"Alistair? Is everything o-" Too late, Alistair heard Arthur's shy voice, and he whipped his head around so fast he tweaked a nerve to see Arthur poking his head into the room. He panicked and magically realigned the door with the frame, sending it zooming from its spot embedded against the wall into Arthur's head.

"YOU SON OF A BITCH!" He heard Arthur scream from his new spot (AKA: on his arse in the hallway), and surprisingly he could also hear Lukas chuckling at Arthur's pain. Glancing down at Dmitri, who had fallen into a deep sleep thanks to Alistair's constant calm and gentle rocking, Alistair decided it was safe to yell back.

"She's your mum too, idjit!" He shouted back, slowly and carefully standing up, shifting his grip so that he was carrying Dmitri bridal-style. He set Dmitri down on the bed, making sure to untangle him from his cocoon of blankets afterwards so Hassan would have some for himself. Almost as soon as Alistair set him down, Dmitri whimpered and buried his face in his pillow, hugging it with both arms like it was a person.

Alistair sighed. Poor kid…no, that wasn't the right word. Children who were treated like that grew up too fast. More to the point, he was actually somewhat surprised and impressed that Dmitri had managed to keep his calm for as long as he did. He was dealing with a tsunami of feelings, not to mention considerable blood loss. Alistair knew that rest would help with that, but he would still make sure to have some water and food ready for when Dmitri wakes up.

With that thought, he stood up straight again, brushed off his jeans, and left the room. Immediately after he left the room and shut the door behind him, he was assaulted by a barrage of worried questions from Arthur, the occasional casual inquiry from Lukas, and a whole plethora of facial expressions from Hassan, half of which Alistair wasn't even aware existed. He held up his hand to stop the flow of concern.

"Do not ask him about what happened today. Do not force him to tell you either. If he wants to let you know, he will do so on his own time. Do not try to Legilimens your way into his mind. I am the only one of us who knows the atrocity committed, and I am the only one who needs to know, seeing as how I'm in charge of you lot." He said calmly, but burning with quiet rage at the same time. He glared at all of them, and waited until he got a spoken promise from each teenager. Then, he fixed the hole in the wall where the door had been blown into, stomped into his own room, and shut the door.

The three remaining teenagers stood awkwardly in the middle of the hall, trying to come up with scenarios that would be bad enough that Alistair would refuse to tell them about it. They stood there in silence, not quite sure what to say, until Lukas spoke up.

"Well I don't know about you guys, but that only made me want to know even more." He sighed, and Arthur and Hassan both nodded.

"But we promised not to ask. And I know what happens when you don't keep your promises towards him…" Arthur stopped midsentence to shudder, "and I have no wish to experience that ever again."

Hassan raised his eyebrows, not quite sure what that meant, but followed Lukas and Arthur into their room for the time being, glad to let Dmitri be alone and rest. Hara jumped on his shoulders once more, meowing softly into his ears. He chuckled and scratched her under the chin, thinking and wondering to himself. If this is what the Magic Trio normally acted like, he wasn't sure if he was ready for a whole year with them. But it would at least be a year he was bound to remember.

* * *

><p>Alistair shut his door behind him, leaving the three teens by themselves in the middle of the hall. Rubbing a hand down his face in exhaustion, he trudged over to the wardrobe, only grunting when the mirror told him that his hair was messy. Digging through his coat's pockets (he had been hanging it up when Dmitri lost it), he found his pack of cigarettes and his lighter. He lit himself one, flopping onto the four-posted bed on his back, and folded his hands behind his head. For a handful of minutes, all he did was scowl at the ceiling…he found himself doing that quite often these days.<p>

Who the hell did Roy think he was? Attacking Dmitri because of the way he looked and that alone! Yes, tensions were high with the riff between the Ministry and Dumbledore's influence, but that didn't mean that it was okay to go ape-shit and attack people –children, no less!- in a public area. Thank Nessie for that Molly Weasley. Alistair smirked to himself, imagining the look of surprise on her face when she next visited her Gringotts vault. He had his own vast treasure trove in the bank, larger than any other account in record, so he could afford to, oh let's say, donate a couple thousand Galleons to the Weasley vault. He had even taken the care to put a sticky note on the pile of gold closest to the door so she was sure of the cause.

But it just got his blood absolutely boiling to think about that shopkeeper. No wonder Dmitri hadn't even wanted to be near the store. As the adult, he should have kept them all together, dammit. It was his job to look after them now, even if they didn't want his help. This could turn out to be more tiring than he thought…

No matter, he thought to himself, his smirk growing as he lifted his right hand into the air and ignited a tiny flame, holding it in his palm like a candle. He needed their help just as much as they would need his. And with the way things were looking right now, it wouldn't be long before this whole plan went up in smoke.

So, he grinned, crushing that little flame, he would just have to get his job done before that happens.

* * *

><p>Arthur had a cheery old time of it, showing off Diagon Alley to Hassan and Lukas while they waited for the school year to begin. Lukas had his own magical streets back in Norway, but he always found it fun to visit other, new places, even if the basic layout was the same. Hassan, on the other hand, practically bounded everywhere on the balls of his heels. It was all Arthur and Lukas could do just to keep up with him, and as strange as it was, it made them smile to see such a normally quiet and stoic nation act so childish.<p>

Dmitri stayed in the Leaky Cauldron. He never left the room Alistair rented for him. When the other three teenagers came back for the nights, they found him in the exact same spot he had been in the mornings when they'd left. Curled up in the closet in a nest of blankets. At least, that's what he was like for the first handful of days; practically comatose. Of course, this left Hassan in a very awkward position since the two of them shared a room. After a while though, Dmitri got some of his old fire back. Well, he was reading books on top of the bed and actually talking to them when they came back. On the seventh day, he even smiled. But he still refused to go outside, whether it was Muggle London or Diagon Alley they ventured to, and nobody tried to make him.

Alistair still wouldn't tell them what happened either.

And none of them dared to ask, if it meant he was going to return to that awful, half-dead state. He was literally a vegetable. They couldn't quite tell what made him get better, but they liked to think it was them. Even if he refused to talk back those first couple days, they always came back to the hotel with treats for his Zburator cub, telling him all the stories about what they did and saw that day.

"Dmitri! We're back!" Arthur announced loudly and unnecessarily when they returned to the Leaky Cauldron nine days after they first arrived. Dmitri glanced up, looking terrified when Arthur threw open the bedroom door, but upon seeing who it was, immediately relaxed and smiled. He carefully placed a bookmark in between the pages of the novel he had been reading, setting the book on the nightstand.

"You have fun?" He asked softly – he seemed to be incapable of speaking louder than softly these days. Arthur nodded, a wild grin on his face as Guin flew down from her perch on top of the wardrobe, nipping at his ear. Hara wound around Hassan's ankles as he set down their day's shopping on the bed, and they all smiled as Lukas' yeti (who Lukas named Jotun) swooped down from the light fixture, screeching madly, and wrapped himself securely around Lukas' neck. Lukas had long since given up trying to pry him off when he did this.

"Oh, yeah, Dmitri, look what we got!" Arthur enthused, trying to get Dmitri to cheer up back into his old self. He dug around in the shopping bags for a few minutes, wherein Lukas and Hassan clambered on the bed and sat in a circle with Dmitri. Arthur triumphantly held up a large box of Every Flavored Beans, and Dmitri's eyes lit right up. These were his favorite kind of Wizarding candy, since he loved mystery. And it was always a mystery, a gamble, with these.

Lukas rolled his eyes, these not being his favorite things in the whole world –but if it cheered Dmitri up, he would go along with it. Hassan, of course, was generally clueless and was left wondering silently exactly what they were and what they did. He had seen Lukas buy himself a box of Ice Mice, and Arthur had a bunch of Chocolate Frogs stowed in his robes currently. Again, he was surprised and in awe of magic, questioning why the hell he hadn't delved into this subject earlier.

Dmitri excitedly pat the spot on the bed directly across from him, with Lukas on his right and Hassan on his left. His Zburator cub, named Tepes, dragged itself on top of his head and rested there quite comfortably as Hara jumped onto the bed and sat daintily in Hassan's lap as her owner removed his keffiyeh.

Arthur sat cross-legged where Dmitri indicated, delicately opening the box with the air of uncovering a great treasure from the ground. Reaching inside so overdramatically that Dmitri snickered, he pulled out a handful of beans and gingerly placed them in the middle of the circle.

"Lukas, you go first." Arthur suddenly said after they spent a moment of very theatrical silence staring ominously at the beans. Lukas jumped, not expecting the noise, then glowered at Arthur.

"Why? Dmitri, you go first!" He retaliated, and Dmitri's eyes widened and he shook his head.

"Arthur, you bought them, you do it!" He shouted, pushing the beans towards Arthur, who automatically pushed them towards Lukas.

"It was Lukas' money, he should do it." He replied, stifling a grin at the look on Lukas' face.

"Actually, it was Alistair's money, he gave us all fifty Galleons, remember? Since you're related to him, you get to eat one first." Lukas hissed, shoving the pile back towards Arthur, who pushed it to Dmitri, and then back to Lukas again. They were so busy arguing over who should dare to eat one, that a dark-skinned hand sneaking a bright red bean went unnoticed. Until-

"Hassan!" Dmitri shrieked, interrupting Lukas and Arthur's newest argument over blood relation. Every eye turned swiftly to the Egyptian, who was rapidly turning red in the face. His green gold eyes were watering and he was choking, clutching at his throat frantically as he tried desperately to swallow the bean.

Dmitri tackled Hassan, thumping him on the back as hard as he could. Lukas jumped right into action too, only as he leapt towards Hassan, his foot became tangled in the blankets. He went crashing to the floor, squirming and cursing, and the box of Every Flavor Beans (which was still open) went down with him.

Arthur tried to shush Hara, who started to yowl madly at her master's plight. They were so caught up in their struggles that they all failed to notice Alistair standing in the doorframe, wondering what the hell was going on.

"Uh…" He finally began, drawing every head towards him. "Bad time?" He asked with a smirk on his face, and it was then that they all realized how very silly they had to look. Hassan on all fours on the floor, choking and coughing with steam coming out of his ears; Dmitri kneeling next to him, repeatedly slamming his hands onto Hassan's back, with Tepes sitting on his head; Arthur, holding onto Hara by her back legs, as her front claws were stuck in the back of Hassan's shirt, and Arthur himself leaning precariously on his belly over the edge of the bed; and Lukas, his ankle hoisted up by the blankets, lying on his back on the floor in a large pile of Every Flavor Beans, looking thoroughly pissed off with the box for the beans on his forehead.

"Little bit, yeah." Arthur said bitterly, finally succeeding in prying Hara off of Hassan, who had mastered the bean and was beginning to breathe normally. Dmitri apologized to Hassan, who rubbed his back and glared at him. Lukas untangled himself from the blankets and sat up, the box still on his head. He looked around at all the spilled beans, then very cautiously picked a grayish green one and ate it.

Arthur, Dmitri, Hassan, and Alistair all looked at Lukas as he gagged. Worried, they watched as he struggled to swallow the offending bean. When he did, he looked at them blankly and all he could say was, "Caviar."

And then the whole situation was suddenly very hilarious to the four teenagers, and they all rolled around on the floor, laughing hysterically. Alistair just shook his head and left the room.

* * *

><p>"Arthur!" Molly Weasley whisperedscreamed as she reentered Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place with her children's school supplies tucked under her arms. She felt like screaming and dancing and singing, but ever mindful of that awful portrait of Mrs. Black, she simply set the day's shopping on the floor by the staircase and ran into the kitchen. Her day had been fantastic enough, what with her little Ron being named prefect –prefect! Her Ronnykins!- but this was the icing on the cake.

Arthur Weasley stood up in shock as his wife came barreling into the dusty, cobweb filled dining room, a mad grin on her face and her hair windblown.

"Arthur, Arthur, oh, you'll never believe this!" She exclaimed, clutching a small yellow paper to her chest like it was her first born. Arthur exchanged a worried glance with Lupin, who was also present in the room and was looking just as confused as Arthur.

"Molly, calm down! What's happened?" He asked bemusedly, watching in slight concern as his wife bounced up and down on her heels, unable to stop smiling. She wordlessly held out the paper to him, out of breath but so very happy. Arthur read it. Then read it again. Then dusted off his glasses and read it once more, before shrieking so loudly that Harry, upstairs, dropped his book on his foot.

Lupin stood up and walked over to the two Weasley's, who were currently clutching each other for dear life and near tears. He leaned over Arthur's shoulder, squinting to read the sloppy handwriting.

* * *

><p><em>I, Alistair Seamus Kirkland, Order of Merlin First Class, Honorary Member of the Wizenmagot, hereby transfer a total of ten thousand Galleons to from my Gringotts vault to that of the Weasley family.<em>

_(P.S. Thank you, Molly, for rescuing Dmitri. Thank you.)_

_-Alistair S. Kirkland_

* * *

><p>Lupin hastily snatched up the paper, his eyes widening to a frightening amount. Ten thousand Galleons…ten thousand…! He knew Alistair well – he had been one of the first members of the Order of the Phoenix and had treated Lupin like an old friend, despite his condition. They had thought he had been killed by one of the Death Eaters; after the Dark Lord was vanquished by Harry, he had simply disappeared. Alistair had even protested against Dolores Umbridge's law that made it illegal to hire werewolves, though he lost in the end. Lupin distinctly remembered him saying gruffly, "There ain't nothin' wrong with ye. Women also turn into carnivorous, bloodthirsty beasts for a week every month, but I don't see nobody bannin' them from getting' jobs."<p>

As Lupin looked up from the sticky note, a smile growing on his face as well, Sirius poked his head into the room. No doubt to interrogate the source of the happy sobbing and hiccups, which both Weasley's were now producing.

"Lupin? What's going on?" He asked worriedly as he walked into the room, and Lupin, like Molly, handed him the paper with not a single word passing his lips. Sirius took it gingerly, as though afraid of its contents, then read it.

Sirius swore so loud that the Weasley twins Apparated downstairs with their wands ready, obviously expecting a good fight. Almost as soon as they appeared, Molly swept them both into a hug, sobbing her eyes out hysterically.

"Mum! Mum, gerroff-!"

"What the-Mum, stop it!" They both shouted, and Molly let them go, only to do the same to Lupin, who patted her on the back consolingly. Fred and George shared confused looks, both slowly lowering their wands at the same time. Their dad too pulled them into a crushing hug, and they looked at each other again and raised their eyebrows. When Mr. Weasley relinquished their hold on them, Sirius simply handed them the sticky note.

There was near silence for a whole sixty seconds as the two of them read Alistair's sloppy handwriting. Then, as one, they slowly looked up at Mrs. Weasley, then to Lupin, then to Sirius, to Mr. Weasley, back to the note, and then at each other. For once, the two of them were struck speechless.

"Ten thousand Galleons…" Fred whispered hollowly, staring at the paper like it held the secrets of life.

"Ten thousand!" George shouted, looking as though he were about to faint. The two of them instantly ran upstairs (as softly as they could, since they had no desire to wake up Mrs. Black) to fetch the rest of the children.

"How did this…?" Mr. Weasley asked, his voice trembling once everyone was sitting around the table, having heard all about the situation from Fred and George. Sirius had broken out the bottles of butterbeer for the occasion, drinking his maniacally. Everybody leaned towards Mrs. Weasley, eager to hear the story.

"W-Well, I was heading back from Gringotts, a-as I had just…just finished the school shopping. A-And I passed by Eyelops Owl Emporium, and…" At this, her face immediately cleared of all traces of happiness, to be replaced by an expression of utmost fury. "I heard someone…a boy, about Ron's age…screaming, from inside the shop. I was heading in, to help, but…" She took a deep, shuddering breath. "B-Before I could even reach the door, it opened, and…the owner, Roy, shoved the boy onto the pavement…Roy was holding a knife, and the poor child was covered in blood, and he was crying, and it was just heartbreaking."

"But what does that have to do with-?" Fred began, but a glare from Sirius shut him up.

"I'm getting to that, dear…I couldn't just stand there and do nothing…I patched the boy up, cleaned his clothes for him, and the like. He was just so sad…I couldn't understand why Roy would hurt such an innocent and cute little boy, until…" Her face somehow hardened even more, making her look truly furious. "Dmitri had red eyes and fangs, and that's why Roy hurt him. Because of the way he looked!"

Hermione made a pitying squeak, and Harry and Ron shared a dark look, as both of them knew exactly how it felt to be attacked for something they couldn't control. Ginny hissed angrily, and Fred and George both nodded, already scheming up a plan for justice. Sirius winced, and Lupin scowled.

"S-So, I helped him…I bought him a nice pet, just the perfect cheer-up. The smile on his face was just so full of gratitude that I didn't even worry about the money I had spent…as we were leaving the Magical Menagerie, his friends found him, and his guardian, Alistair, found him too." When she spoke of Alistair, she gave a tiny little sigh and her face turned as red as her hair. Arthur coughed pointedly.

"Right, right…then Alistair insisted that he somehow repay me for helping Dmitri, but I couldn't accept, it was something anybody should have done…before he left with his charges though, he told me to go back to Gringotts and check the vault again. So I did, and there was just…gold, everywhere! Galleons and rubies and diamonds! That note-" She nodded shakily towards the abandoned sticky note, "was stuck to the nearest pile of Galleons. I asked the goblin if this was real, if he had actually done this, if this was actually our vault, and it was, it was all ours, and oh, Arthur!" She sobbed, wrapping her arms around her husband again.

George (or was it Fred) whistled lowly, awe shining in his eyes.

"How loaded is this guy if he can just give away that kind of money?!" He whispered, and Sirius laughed heartily.

"There's probably more money in the Weasley vault now than the Malfoy's!" He snickered, and the Weasley children, Harry, and Hermione all adopted equal, evil grins. They couldn't wait until they went back to Hogwarts and could rub it in Malfoy's pale, pointed face that the Weasley's now had more money than him. Mrs. Weasley leapt up, gasping loudly.

"We have to tell Bill! And Charlie, and Per-" At this, all conversation ceased. Mr. Weasley dropped his butterbeer, looking very cold. Recovering quickly, she turned to Harry. "Can I borrow Hedwig, dear?"

"Nope, sorry, Hermione just sent her out." Harry said, shaking his head. Ron jumped to his feet, obviously keen to draw the topic of conversation away from Percy.

"You can take Pig mom, he's been crazy for a job now that Harry's here." He offered, and Molly smiled, following him upstairs while still whispering "ten thousand Galleons!" under her breath.

* * *

><p>"Arthur, can I borrow Guin?" Alistair asked, poking his head into the Dmitri's room, where all the teenagers were gathered. They had all bought themselves brooms with the money Alistair had given them, and now they were bragging to each other, comparing their brooms with the legendary Firebolt.<p>

"Why?" Arthur asked incredulously, wondering why Alistair didn't just use his own owl. Isn't that what had been in the cage Alistair had bought from the Magical Menagerie? But then, he realized, he had never seen what Alistair had bought. Whenever Arthur actually went into Alistair's rented room, the cage had been empty…so what…?

"I need to send a letter." Alistair replied, holding up a tightly sealed envelope. Arthur couldn't determine who the letter was for, as Alistair had most of his fingers covering the name. Before he could determine whether or not Alistair was hiding the name on purpose, Alistair had beckoned Guin down and was tying the letter to her leg.

"Oi, I didn't say yes!" Arthur shouted, but Alistair rolled his eyes.

"You were going to anyways." He said coolly, striding to the window with Guin on his wrist. He opened the window and stuck his arm out, and Guin spread her beautiful wings and took to the skies as Arthur sputtered out curse words and death threats vehemently. Alistair simply swaggered out of the room, and if he noticed the shoe Arthur lobbed at the door once he left, he didn't comment on it, seemingly lost in thought.

"He is the world's biggest asshole." Arthur hissed, not bothering to retrieve his trainer. Lukas and Hassan exchanged a glance and quickly resumed admiring their broomsticks. Dmitri frowned, but remained as silent as Hassan.

Shut up in this room across the hall from Alistair, he heard things Hassan, Arthur, and Lukas did not. Things he couldn't understand, not that he was sure he'd want to. He could hear Alistair saying things to no one, pacing around the room furiously, occasionally cursing.

"Seriously think that they…! This…my school…little shits…they think…no, Dumbledore will surely…oh, come off it…jackasses…got to…protect him…he's back, nobody listens…fucking Dark Lord…Arthur will, no doubt…he'd be honored…Umbridge, they want Umbridge…this is war, people!"

Dmitri had no idea what Alistair was raving about, but it surely got Alistair riled up. And that was enough to get anybody worried, which was the only thing Dmitri seemed to be these days.

* * *

><p>"Come on dude, you always win!" Alfred F. Jones whined, his sky blue eyes glued to the game of Mario Kart even as his younger half-brother Kyle struck him with a blue shell. Kyle laughed loudly as his Yoshi sped past Alfred's Mario, making sure to knock Mario off the track as he went.<p>

"You kept telling me you rocked at this game!" Kyle snickered, his thick Australian accent marring his words. Alfred threw the controller against the ground, conceding defeat.

"I thought I did! I always beat Mattie when I play against him!" Alfred shouted, and Kyle thought it best to not tell Alfred that Matthew actually played Mario Kart excellently; he just pretended to suck so Alfred could believe he was good at it. Kyle, on the other hand, was not that nice. Alfred challenged him, and he had to win, if only to prove that he could.

"You're just mean, you know that?" Alfred muttered, seeing Kyle's taunting gaze. Kyle tried to persuade Alfred to at least finish the race before he quit, but Alfred was done. Sighing, Kyle turned off the N64 and followed the still-sulking Alfred into the kitchen. Al handed Kyle a beer, taking a bottle of Pepsi for himself.

"You don't want beer?" Kyle asked, and Alfred narrowed his eyes at him.

"You know I'm under age, asshole." He muttered, and Kyle chuckled, but nevertheless sipped his beer quietly. It was always a humorous topic, the fact that Alfred was too young to drink in his own country. Other countries would always tease him about it, much to his chagrin, and even when he could drink, he often chose not to. It just wasn't his thing; after living through so many centuries with Arthur getting as drunk as a skunk nearly every weekend, he had developed a serious aversion to alcohol.

They hung out in the kitchen of the London flat Alfred had rented for the World Conference, Alfred sitting on the table and Kyle leaning nonchalantly on the counter, chatting about this and that. Eventually, the conversation steered towards where it always did when these two were left alone with each other. Their next big trip.

Whenever they both had a weekend free, they would get together in secret, and do an extreme sport that poor old Arthur would have a heart attack from. These trips usually ended in disaster and injury for the both of them (their last adventure, going sky-diving over the Grand Canyon, was a particularly painful experience), but they made some good stories, not to mention they got to hang out someplace that wasn't work.

"What about Niagara Falls? I've always wanted to go down that in a barrel." Kyle suggested.

"Dude, people have died doing that!" Alfred shouted, but then remembered that that issue wouldn't be a problem for them, and felt like an idiot. Kyle merely shot him a look, and Alfred quickly recovered from his mistake. "But, we'll be fine! Niagara Falls it is, then." He smiled, and Kyle grinned. It was then, as they were working out their schedules and discussing time differences, that Kyle's ears picked up a tiny sound.

"But, wait, you're a whole day behind me?!" Alfred yelled, and Kyle quickly shushed him. Alfred was about to argue, but then he heard it as well. A tapping noise, like someone gently knocking a nail against glass. Kyle, letting his ears guide him, cautiously poked his head out into the living room and looked around. His eyes immediately found the source; a beautiful barn owl was tapping its beak against the window impatiently, and when its dark eyes saw him, it increased the speed, as though to say, "Hurry up!"

"Crikey, what's an owl doing here?" He muttered, before suddenly realizing the reason this felt so familiar. At the beginning of the summer, a tawny owl had tapped on his bedroom window just like this, with a letter tied firmly around its leg. For some weird reason, and he had yet to figure out why, Arthur and his older brothers sent dire messages by owl. The one he had received in June had told him that some Dark Lord had risen from the grave, and to be on the lookout for any suspicious characters in cloaks and masks, wielding magic. So far, Kyle hadn't seen any…but he always remained vigilant. The letter had said that he might be a target, since he was related to the Kirklands, so he kept his boomerangs on him at all times.

"Owl? What the…Ohhhh…." Alfred slowly said, he too having gotten a few messages delivered by owl in the past, always warning him to be cautious and that there was someone out there who was planning on hurting anyone related to the Kirkland family.

Before Alfred could say another word, Kyle had strided over to the window and opened it. The owl flew inside and landed on the back of the couch, holding its leg out for Kyle to take the letter attached to it. Kyle untied the envelope with slightly trembling hands, and broke the wax seal. He opened it and removed the letter inside, reading it with furrowed Kirkland eyebrows.

"What's it say?" Alfred asked after a minute of watching Kyle mutter some of the words to himself as he read. Kyle, who finished just as Alfred asked the question, wordlessly handed Alfred the letter, who read it so fast his eyes seemed blurry.

* * *

><p><em>Kyle –<em>

_I have written this letter only because the situation is dire; trust me, I wouldn't be asking you to get involved in all this Wizarding business if I couldn't help it. But as it is, do you remember that last letter I sent you? Have you seen anyone, anyone at all that matches the description? I hope you're staying safe._

_In any case, here is the reason for this letter. The Groundskeeper and Care of Magical Creatures professor at Hogwarts, Rubeus Hagrid, is away currently, and there is no telling when he'll be back. Dumbledore, the headmaster of the aforementioned school, has asked me for a recommendation on a replacement professor until such time as Hagrid returns. Naturally, I can't think of anyone more suited for the job than you._

_And no, you don't get a choice in whether or not you'll be teaching. You still owe me for rescuing you from the bottom of the Thames after your last 'vacation' with Alfred, so start packing._

_Before you start freaking out, this job entitles simply educating the students on magical animals and providing course materials, etc. You got this, anyhow; animals and kids, it's like your dream job, isn't it? In any case, Patrick will be along momentarily. He'll be taking you to Diagon Alley to purchase necessary magical items, such as a wand, and helping you with a few basic spells so you don't look like a clueless idiot when you arrive. He'll also be taking you to Hogwarts, where you'll be staying until term starts. Start packing, asshole._

_Oh, and Alfred, if you're reading this, no, you can't come with, and I've already set up measures to ensure you won't. Don't even try._

_Stay safe, and remember to report any blokes in black capes and skull masks. Tell James hi for me._

_-Scottie_

* * *

><p>"Uh…what's Hogwarts again?" Kyle asked, looking incredibly embarrassed to be asking such a thing. It felt like it was an obvious answer, but he just couldn't place it. Like seeing a math problem that you know you should know how to do, but just not getting it at all, no matter how simple it looked. Alfred shrugged, looking thoroughly pissed that he was being shut out of the magical circle.<p>

"Sounds like a disease."

* * *

><p>"Harry, Ronald?" Molly Weasley asked on the day before term started, poking her head into Harry and Ron's shared bedroom. Harry looked up from packing his trunk to see her slightly worried face.<p>

"Yes, Mrs. Weasley?" He asked, and she gestured down the hall with her head.

"Professor McGonagall is here. She'd like to have a word with you two." Mrs. Weasley said, looking just as confused as Harry and Ron felt. What would McGonagall be doing here, literally right before school starts? What would she have to ask them? Ron carefully placed his prefect badge in his pocket to ensure that Fred and George wouldn't steal it while they were gone, and Harry hastily finished folding his socks.

"What would McGonagall want with us?" Ron whispered lowly as they exited the room to head down into the kitchen. Harry shrugged, his mind buzzing with too many theories and reasons for her visit to talk much. When the two of them descended the stairs, the professor was waiting for them, looking as severe and strict as always.

"Potter, Weasley." She said sharply, and they both nodded.

"Professor." They said in unison, and the corners of her mouth twitched upwards.

"I have come with a request from the Headmaster." She said, and Harry's heart lept up in excitement, then immediately sank as it was filled with anger and resentment. What could Dumbledore possibly want with him, after a whole summer of pretending he didn't exist and keeping him in the dark? Ron, however, gaped in surprise at McGonagall, obviously not expecting Dumbledore to ask him for something. Vaguely, he wondered if his new status as prefect had anything to do with it.

"Yes, Professor?" Harry asked, recovering first and trying to keep his bitterness towards the Headmaster from leaking into his voice. She lowered her head and surveyed the two of them over the top of her glasses.

"This year at Hogwarts, we are admitting four transfer students, all in the fifth year. The Headmaster was wondering if you would share a dorm with them, to show them the ropes and teach them how our school works." She said slowly, and Harry stood there, dumbstruck. Ron was blinking profusely in confusion, and out of the corner of his eye he could see the tip of an Extendable Ear poking through the bottom of the kitchen door.

"Uh…yeah, of course we will." Harry finally said thickly, swallowing any resentment he had towards Dumbledore. Ron nodded behind him, finally getting over his shock.

"Excellent. I will see you at the start of term feast, Potter, Weasley." Professor McGonagall said, striding out the front door as fast as she had come, leaving two very confused fifteen year-olds in her wake.

* * *

><p>This is it, Arthur thought to himself as he grinned, leading the group through King's Cross Station with excitement practically pouring off of him. We're finally going!<p>

"Don't piss yourself, Arthur." Lukas muttered with a tiny smile, following after the overexcited Brit with Jotun's cage in one hand and one eye on Dmitri. In fact, the whole group besides Arthur was keeping their gaze on Dmitri, watching him carefully to see how he reacted to the sudden crowd of people. But Dmitri was acting like he had done before they had even taken the trip; carefree and mischievous. Nobody was quite sure why, but to Dmitri, it was simply that his friends were getting as many weird looks as he was for once. That was, of course, mostly due to the fact that Lukas was carrying a monkey, Hassan had Hara sitting on top of his head proudly, and Alistair was pushing a trolley piled high with trunks, Tepes' and Guin's cages placed precariously on top.

"This way, come on!" Arthur called over his shoulder, nearly sprinting into the wall between Platforms 9 and 10. Before Hassan had a chance to fully realize why Arthur suddenly disappeared (Lukas and Dmitri had seen magical walls plenty of times before), Alistair had shoved him through. Hassan braced himself for an impact, clenching his eyes shut in anticipation of a brick wall slamming into his face. It never came. Instead, he got a lungful of smoke.

His eyes slowly opened as he recovered from this latest coughing fit, and he at first he was sure he had hit his head on the wall, for there was no way what he was seeing had been there before. A bright scarlet steam engine train was sitting by the platform, periodically puffing out smoke. Wizards of every size and shape and color milled around on the platform itself; cats twirled around ankles, tripping more than a few people; owls hooted dolefully over the noise of the crowd; and he could even hear a toad croaking if he concentrated hard enough.

He turned on his heel, slowly to ensure Hara did not fall off, and watched avidly as Alistair appeared with the trolley, passing through the wall as though it was mere mist. The urge to figure out exactly what the hell was up with the wall nearly overrode the deep rooted instinct to stay silent. But before he could even muster up a questioning facial expression, Arthur (whose hyperactivity seemed to grow tenfold when they reached Platform 9 ¾) had grabbed him by his sleeve and practically dragged him towards the train.

"Come on! If we hurry we'll get a whole compartment to ourselves!" Arthur shouted over the noise of the crowd. Lukas and Dmitri materialized through the wall behind Alistair, Dmitri laughing at the helpless look on Hassan's face as Arthur pulled the Egyptian behind him. The four of them found a completely empty compartment around the end of the train, Alistair only joining them in order to help them lift up their trunks onto the luggage racks.

"Have fun at Hogwarts…there'll be a surprise for you." Alistair said, a bit terrified when Arthur timidly hugged him (seriously, what was up with him?! He had been acting brotherly…and nice…to Alistair ever since they had been de-aged!). He had gingerly wrapped his arms around Arthur, trying not to be a stiff board like he normally was when hugged, but then he had bolted out of the train as fast as his legs could carry him.

If Arthur noticed his friends giving him weird looks after the hug, he completely ignored them. Truth was, as stupid as it sounded, he felt…vulnerable like this. Which was absolutely ridiculous, seeing as how him becoming physically younger-looking did not affect his mind or skill at all. Unless, of course, Alistair somehow screwed up the de-aging spell, which was equally ridiculous.

Even though his brain was telling him that he was being an idiot, there was no denying that terrible shiver running down his back, that twinge of fear that was constantly in his heart that made him glance over his shoulder every five minutes.

Something was wrong. Very wrong.

He tried not to let his paranoia show as his Dmitri and Lukas chatted happily about Hogwarts and worried about Alistair's 'surprise'. Hassan was smiling and nodding with everything they said, his eyes sparkling with happiness. Their pets were all there, and they were finally on their way to Hogwarts. Everything was as it should be.

So why, why, couldn't Arthur sleep at night?

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Ta-da! Boom baby!**

**Did you like it? I liked it! Reviews will earn you House Points!**

**Thanks for reading, you wonderful person you~**


	3. Charge

**A/N: Guess who's back! Back again! Donut's back! Tell a friend! *dancing around in triumph***

**Whoohoo! Yes, I've finally finished my research paper, got my grade up in Government, thrown a wicked Halloween party, and a bunch of other shit you probably don't care about, and I've decided to celebrate with a brand new chapter! *heavenly chorus***

***Ahem* Anywho, this did take a lot longer to write than I planned, and I'm sorry, but I'm just not a person who keeps a schedule of these things...seriously, some people have a new chapter like every week, and I don't know how they do it! Ya'll are angels!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Hetalia, and if I did, I would have better names for the new season of Hetalia than 'World Twinkle'. Seriously, Hima-Papa, what were you thinking?!**

**Bit of Dmitri angst here, some Malfoy bashing, and what you've all be waiting for...Roy's comeuppance. You all had such wonderful ideas on what I could do for this chapter, but my mom actually gave me the best one, so sorry but I went with that. Sorry!**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

><p>A certain shopkeeper locked up his store for the night, trusting the new guy to keep things quiet. The just-fresh-out-of-school teenager he'd just hired, Donovan, seemed to be incredibly paranoid about this whole You-Know-Who business and was barely able to agree to stay the night shift without a lot of coaxing from Roy. Personally, Roy thought that the Boy Who Lived's claims were a lot of old tosh – who would even make that kind of stuff up? A desperate, attention seeking little tosser, that's who.<p>

Roy huffed through his mustache, glancing at his watch and turning away down the street as the sun began to set behind Gringotts. He was in no hurry to get home. After all, Florence & Fortescue's was always open later in the evening than most of the other stores on this street, and they were having a sale on their triple-scoop fudge cones. Roy had a bit of spare change in his pocket, so why not? His wife wouldn't mind if he came home later than planned anyways. She herself was always out somewhere, even when he got home early.

Roy hummed a tune to himself as he walked, waving to anybody he saw jovially. His thoughts travelled to that vampire inbred he'd kicked out of his store a while back, and he snorted. Bloody fanged freaks, waltzing all over like they owned the place and were equal to wizards. Hell, he'd even seen a wand sticking out of the thing's pocket!

He should've alerted the ministry about that, but he hadn't honestly cared at the time, too busy trying to wrangle the stupid thing out of his store. Why the hell was it even looking at his birds, anyways? Stupid creatures, thinking they were better than everyone. Luckily Roy had brought his handy knife to work, just in case. He'd never thought he'd have to use it though – couldn't vamps just do that stupid 'flitting' thing and zoom away from trouble? This one didn't even try! It probably wanted the pain; maybe it realized how pitiful it was and just wanted to be put out of its misery. Roy would be happy to oblige if he ever saw it again.

So caught up in his thoughts was Roy that he didn't notice a hand reaching out of the dark alley until it had already grabbed him by the hair and dragged him backwards, eliciting a yelp of pain and several curses. His assailant turned on his heel, and Roy was only able to get a glimpse of shockingly scarlet hair before he was being crushed in Side-Along Apparition.

They reappeared somewhere, somewhere filled with trees taller than Roy had ever seen and gnarled and crooked, like old man's bones. The hand let go of his thinning hair, and Roy spun around, ripping his wand out of his pockets, cursing and yelling.

He heard a voice whisper something over his own shouts and insults, and suddenly, he found himself unable to move, to speak, to blink even, and he fell backwards with a heavy thud.

Panic rising, his eyes fixed firmly on the tiny sliver of blood red sky between the tops of the trees, Roy's piggy eyes made out something moving and shifting to his right. Then, a face peered at him with a wide, madman Cheshire grin. A mop of red hair framed his face, and the look in his stunning green eyes would have been enough to paralyze Roy without the use of Petrificus Totalus.

"Roy, right? I've heard a lot about you." The red-haired man said happily, in the same way a murderer would approach his victims. Roy's gut was telling him that he should get the hell out of there as fast as his legs would carry him, but it wasn't like he could move in the first place. "If I'm correct, you're the insect who hurt my charge about a week ago. Well, I suppose I could forgive you and move on, since you really do amount to nothing more than an ant in my eyes –" The red haired man's grin grew wider at this, showing all his teeth, "and it'd be a shame to kill you, after all. I'm sure you've got a family somewhere…."

The man held up what appeared to be a…oh my God, was that a melon scooper?! And in his other hand, a wire puller! His green eyes, now dancing with something Roy really didn't want to think about, almost seemed to glow in the near darkness brought about by the sun just touching the horizon.

"You know, this really could have all been avoided. Though I must admit, I'm going to enjoy watching you writhe like the fucking worm you are. Now then…" He alternated his gaze between the scooper and the puller, his grin never once faltering. Roy was fighting the petrification with all his might, screaming mentally in any way he could to just get away from this man, this man who wanted to hurt him and laugh at his pain.

"What was the first thing you noticed about the 'Freak'? His eyes or his fangs?" Alistair S. Kirkland grinned savagely, putting down the wire puller and instead squeezing the melon scooper, opening and closing it randomly and turning it so that it gleamed in the light of the setting sun.

"Do keep quiet. There's a very small chance somebody will find us all the way out here in the Misty Wood, but just to be safe. I'd really hate to have to wipe somebody's memories tonight."

* * *

><p>One Harry James Potter was not, as they say, a happy camper. This was his first time ever since first year that he was attempting to find a compartment on the train alone. Not for the first time, resentment and bitter anger welled up inside him for the headmaster. Why would he make Ron and Hermione prefect anyways? What was so special about them? They weren't the ones who saw Cedric Diggory die in front of them, nor were they the ones who killed the bloody basilisk or saved the Philosopher's Stone.<p>

A tiny part of him realized the fact that he'd be in a huge hole if it weren't for all the help the two have given him over the years – he would have never made it past the Devil's Snare, giant chess board, or Snape's potion riddle without them, and Hermione was the one who even figured out it was a basilisk in the school anyways, and Ron, even though he hated spiders, was still brave enough to go with him into the heart of the Acromantula nest.

Oh yes, he knew all of this well, but he thoroughly felt like rolling around and stewing in his frustration and just letting it vent for a while. He was entitled to a bit of anger after a whole summer of being ignored, right?

To make matters worse, Ginny had left him to go hang out with some of her fourth year friends, leaving him to wander the train alone, dragging Hedwig's cage and his trunk behind him with difficulty. And as usual, as soon as he'd set foot on the train and it began to move, the whispers and glances began. They were even worse than last year –no doubt he had the Prophet to thank for that- But that didn't make them hurt less. At least on the platform, there was a big enough crowd that nobody would give him a second glance.

He'd spotted Cho Chang in one of the compartments as he'd struggled past, and was about to raise his hand and wave in greeting when he remembered she was Cedric's girlfriend. He moved on, his insides feeling like lead. Hedwig hooted at him, and he sighed.

Find a place to sit first. Worry about existential crisis later.

At the very end of the train, he found a car that only held five people, none of which he'd seen before. When he looked through the small window in the door, he could make out four heads; the fifth one was buried in a magazine, and only a tangle of platinum blonde, wispy hair could be seen.

From the hair, Harry could guess that it was a girl, and from her size, she was most likely in Ginny's year or below. The other occupants of the car were all boys.

One had taken an entire seat to himself, his back resting against the window and his legs splayed out over the seat. One knee was propped up, holding a thick book in place. Harry almost took him for Malfoy; their hair colors were practically identical, as were their hairstyles. Except that this boy had his bangs swept to the side and held there with a cross-shaped clip, underneath which was an unruly curl of hair that stuck out stubbornly. He was muttering to himself as his navy blue eyes, like an ocean during a storm, moved back and forth across the page.

Another boy was lying on a seat on his stomach, meticulously building an Exploding Snap card castle in the aisle with unnatural precision, given the shaking of the train as it barreled along the tracks. He had dark skin and short cut black hair that was parted to one side. It was messy, like he had recently run his hands through it. A lot. You'd think his eyes would match the rest of his body, being dark – but no, they were a bright, captivating lime green that Harry found himself fascinated with. His tongue poking out of his brilliantly white teeth, he carefully placed another card on his castle, his sleeve riding up a bit to show a golden bracelet on his wrist and some sort of tattoo.

Sitting opposite this boy was another who was sitting ramrod straight in the middle of the seat, his disturbingly large eyebrows furrowed in a frown. Harry got the impression that they would make him look like he was permanently scowling, even when he was happy. His shirt and pants were pristine, not a wrinkle to be found. His trainers were stark white, with not even a single speck of dirt on them. Throwing Harry off was the boy's hair. It was messy and dirty blond, yet still had the styled air to it, like he brushed it this way on purpose. It reminded Harry of one of the hairstyles he had seen on a motorcycle gang member once when he was younger; punk. His eyes were startling, emerald green that danced with their own fire, putting Harry's to shame. He was reading the Daily Prophet with one hand, the other twirling his wand between his fingers like a drumstick.

Finally, there was the boy in the very back of the car. Looking at him, Harry felt sad and scared all at once. His appearance was frightening; a black hood pulled over his head, with only a few locks of strawberry blond hair sticking out. Glowing, almost malicious red eyes peered out from underneath the shadow of the hood, and Harry could see the stick of something (he almost thought it was a cigarette before realizing his own stupidity) poking out of his mouth. Harry would have been deterred, but then he noticed the other things about him. Like how he was curled up on the seat, taking up as little space as possible. The noticeable droop in his eyes, and the sadness and fear radiating off him like a dark cloud. His slumped and defeated posture. Harry made a mental note to be kind to him.

He didn't really have any choice here. This was the only place with the least amount of people, and this was better than nothing. He'd rather take his chances with a bunch of strangers than try to brave the length of the train again. He was sick and tired of people gawking at him wherever he went, and he just wanted to sit down.

He adjusted his glasses and knocked sharply on the glass. To their credit, none of them flinched except the boy in the black hood. This was good, since Harry didn't want to be the one to ruin the dark-skinned boy's card castle, which was getting rather impressive. The one reading his book didn't even look up. The punk-haired one looked up from his paper, folding it daintily and setting it down next to him before getting up and opening the door for Harry.

His eyes only flicked to Harry's scar for the merest of seconds before locking onto his eyes. Green fire met green fire, and Harry found himself at a loss for words. Luckily, the other boy spoke up.

"Need a compartment there?" He asked, and Harry nodded, and the boy stood to the side, gesturing at the compartment widely. Harry nodded his gratitude, a little stunned when he offered to help Harry with his trunk. The boy hefted the heavy trunk into the luggage rack easily, then turned to Harry, who had sunk into the seat in front of him exhaustedly. He brushed his hair out of his face, and held out his hand.

"Arthur Kirkland. Nice to meet you." He said politely, and Harry nodded, grasping his hand and shaking it. He was surprised by Arthur's strong, confident grip, but nonetheless returned the greeting.

"Harry Potter." He responded, and Arthur's eyes flicked to his scar again. He turned to his companions.

"Oi, introduce yourselves. Be polite." He commanded, raising his voice a bit. The boy who was reading huffed, turning his gaze to the ceiling in exasperation, but placed a leather bookmark in between the pages he was reading and closed the book. The younger girl finally raised her head from her magazine, revealing pale grey eyes and permanently arched eyebrows, giving her a perpetually surprised look. Her wand was tucked behind one ear, and she stared unabashedly at Harry, not realizing how uncomfortable her gaze was making him.

The boy who was reading gave Harry a courteous nod.

"I'm Lukas Bondevik. A pleasure." He said curtly, and Harry was then struck by another difference between this boy and Malfoy – he didn't think Malfoy was capable of speaking without a sarcastic drawl. Harry offered him a shy hello, noticing his accent. Somewhere from Scandinavia, he guessed.

"Hi, I'm Dmitri Dogaru." The boy in the black hood said softly, surprisingly softly for his menacing appearance. There was a small smile on his face, and he offered Harry a wave from the back of the car. "Nice to meet you, Harry." He had an accent too.

"This is Muhammad Gupta Hassan." Arthur supplied, gesturing at the brown skinned boy, who looked up from his card castle to glare at Arthur, who sighed. "Call him Hassan, though." Satisfied, Hassan smiled brightly at Harry before returning to his castle. The girl took her turn, speaking in a high, whimsical voice.

"You have an awful lot of wrackspurtz buzzing around you…" She said. At Harry and Arthur's questioning looks, she shrugged. "They're tiny moth creatures that fly in your head through your ears and make your brain go fuzzy. I thought I felt a few flying around in here…" She said, flapping her hands in the air like she was swatting invisible flies.

"She's Luna Lovegood." Arthur said for her, looking bemused by her antics. Struck by a thought, Harry realized that from Lukas and Dmitri's accents that they were probably the foreign exchange students he and Ron were in charge of. Turning to Lukas, who had yet to return to his book, choosing instead to feed some sort of white monkey with tusks that was perched on the luggage rack.

"If you don't mind me asking, where are you from?" He asked shyly, and Lukas looked at him out of the corner of his eye. Feeling very nervous because of Lukas' cold and unfriendly aura, he found himself stuttering his next words. "I-It's just that you all have accents I've never heard before, a-and I was wondering…"

Lukas sighed, stroking the monkey thing with his index finger. It chittered happily in response, leaning into his touch and closing its eyes in contentment.

"I'm from Norway, Dmitri is from Romania, and Hassan's from Egypt." He said, and Harry nodded. His mind sparked, a memory of a photograph of the assembled Weasley family standing in a hot, arid desert, smiling and waving in front of a pyramid. "And before you ask, this is Jotun. He's a yeti." Lukas said, pointing to the monkey thing which was nibbling on his fingers.

Harry nodded, turning in his seat to Hassan, wanting to ask questions but not wanting to interrupt his focus. He waited until Hassan was between cards to talk, and he had to wonder exactly where Hassan had gotten this many cards.

"Egypt? One of my friends went on holiday there after his family one the Galleon draw. It looked pretty cool – is it nice there?" He asked, not noticing Arthur's awkward shifting, Lukas' smirk, and Dmitri's sigh at Lukas' smirk. Hassan looked up at him, smiling, and nodded enthusiastically, then his grin shifted more into an awkward smile.

"Uhh…" Harry said at the ensuing silence, and Arthur coughed into his hand, making Harry looked up at him.

"Well, Harry…Hassan doesn't really-" He began, but Luna cut him off.

"He says that it gets pretty hot there, but he's used to it, and it's not all pyramids and desert like you think. It's actually pretty modern, and he says that he misses his home and older brothers. He also says that he's only been inside the haunted pyramids a couple times, since they creep him out a bit. He thinks magic is weird, but wonderful, since he's muggleborn and has never seen it aside from the magic and curses still active inside the pyramids. He'd like to study them when he gets home, figure out the runes they used for spells and such. He also says that it's nice to meet you, Harry Potter, since he's heard a lot about you." Luna explained.

Dmitri made a noise like a startled dog.

Everyone was staring at her in shock, even Lukas. Hassan's mouth had fallen open, his hand raised above the card castle, another card threatening to slip from his fingertips. Arthur was staring at Luna with raised eyebrows (seriously, they were the size of guinea pigs!), his mouth open in a perfect 'o' shape.

Harry was confused at the sudden silence, his mind racing. What was the big deal? And for that matter, why hadn't Hassan told him this himself? Now that he thought about it, Arthur had introduced Hassan for him…

_** BOOM!**_

They were all jolted from their thoughts as Hassan's castle, which he had so carefully built, blew up in his and Harry's faces. When the smoke settled, Harry saw Hassan grinning at him, his face blackened with soot and the tip of his nose singed. Harry felt his face melt into a smile too, and then he and Hassan were rolling around in their seats, laughing their asses off and clutching their sides desperately.

Lukas shrugged and shot Arthur a questioning look, and Arthur shrugged back, winking and grinning at him. Lukas rolled his eyes, plopping back down into his seat and opening his book once again.

For a good hour, they spent the train ride in happiness, laughing and grinning. Lukas stayed out of the conversations mostly, reading silently to himself. Dmitri, after a little coaxing from Arthur, had joined in, his voice slowly gaining in volume and passion over time. Hassan, still, said nothing. Luna had put down her magazine, instead choosing to stare at each boy in turn. Arthur, Harry, and Dmitri were deep in a conversation about Quidditch, and last year's World Cup.

"But the problem was, he paid them in Leprechaun gold, so it disappeared after a while. The two of them didn't even notice it was gone until we were already back at the Burrow." Harry chuckled, and Arthur snorted as Dmitri laughed. He had taken off his hood not too long ago, revealing shaggy, slightly long hair. Harry had been put off a bit by the red eyes and fangs combination, but at this point he knew Dmitri was a big softie, plus he knew what real vampires looked like, thanks to Professor Lupin's lessons.

Of course, things just had to take a turn for the worse, because heaven forbid Harry Potter spend time relaxing.

The car door opened, revealing three of Harry's least favorite people. Draco Malfoy, and always at his side, Crabbe and Goyle. Internally, Harry rolled his eyes and cursed violently. Why couldn't Malfoy leave him alone for one ride? Just one train ride. It was like Malfoy purposely sought him out.

"Made some new friends, Potter?" He drawled, his eyes roaming over everyone in the car calculatingly. Arthur immediately scowled, and Hassan gave a soft hiss under his breath. Dmitri flipped his hood back up, glaring at Malfoy from its shadow. Lukas ignored him, something Malfoy did not take kindly to.

"I'm Draco Malfoy; I'm sure you've all heard of my father. He's been trying his best to make sure Hogwarts is safe for all students this year, and to make it especially welcoming for…new people." Malfoy smirked, and Lukas sighed, placing his bookmark carefully between his pages again. Malfoy took this as a good sign, and pressed forward, not noticing Arthur and Harry's shared evil grins. "What's your name?"

"_Det er av ingen betydning av deg, din lille dritt_." He said politely, and though Harry couldn't translate it, he knew that it was nothing children should hear. Malfoy stood there, confused and irritated.

"What?" He huffed, and Lukas smirked.

"Oh, so sorry. I forgot that you're an uneducated little shit who's probably completely dependent on daddy; maybe if you actually paid attention in your classes instead of whining like a goddamn douchebag, you'd understand me." He said smugly, nodding in satisfaction at the stunned look on Malfoy's face. He then returned to his book, Jotun growling angrily at Malfoy. Dmitri snickered, and Malfoy turned to him instead.

"Think that's funny, do you? I bet your father's some lowlife, the same as his probably is," He said hotly, jerking his head at Lukas, "so you can't laugh. I, after all, have been made prefect this year." He smirked, tapping the green and silver badge on his chest proudly. Dmitri gave him a blank stare, then grinned at him, showing off his fangs.

Malfoy paled, and he stumbled back a few steps.

"G-Get the hell away from me, you fanged freak!" He shouted, and Arthur and Hassan immediately leapt to their feet, Arthur cursing Malfoy and Hassan glaring at him with enough heat to rival a desert. Arthur drew his wand, ready to hex Malfoy into oblivion, prefect status be damned. A hand grasped his shoulder, and he looked back to see Dmitri looking at him with gratitude and something mischievous dancing in his eyes. Dmitri didn't look upset by the comment, so Arthur lowered his wand slightly. Slightly.

Dmitri looked Malfoy up and down coolly, sucking on his second lollipop as he thought. Then he reached up and took it out of his mouth, stuck his other hand in his pocket, and whistled.

A gray and black blur shot out from underneath Dmitri's seat so quickly Harry cracked his neck trying to watch it. It jumped at Malfoy, biting and scratching and barking loudly, ripping away at him with tiny claws and fangs. Malfoy howled and jumped around in pain, Crabbe and Goyle standing there stupidly, not sure what to do. Harry and Arthur laughed evilly at Malfoy's plight, and only stopped when Dmitri finally called off Tepes.

Malfoy left the car, his hair tousled, his clothes ripped, and several red scratches adorning his face and arms. He shouted something to Dmitri over his shoulder, and slammed the car door behind him. Harry clapped Dmitri on the back, a grin fixed onto his face, only barely noticing Dmitri's flinch at the contact. That almost topped the 'Amazing Bouncing Ferret' incident from last year, almost being the key word.

"That was fantastic! Who's this little guy?" Harry asked, taking an immediate liking to the odd looking cub that Dmitri had gathered in his arms. Dmitri smiled at him, always happy to explain.

"This is Tepes! He's a baby Zburator – they're like wolf and dragon hybrids. He's barely half a year old, so he can't breathe fire yet, but he will eventually." He hummed, scratching Tepes behind the ears happily and feeding him a treat from his pocket for good behavior. Arthur choked on his own spit at the words.

"Breathe fire? He could possibly start breathing fire? As if Lukas didn't do that enough!" He groaned, and Lukas glared at him. Luna spoke up for the first time in a long time, a faint smile on her face.

"Oh yes, they are wonderful creatures. I read some books about them, and they are fascinating…" She sighed, her soft voice trailing off into silence. Dmitri nodded, not at all put off by her behavior. In fact, he rather liked her. He was the first person to get to this car, and he had politely asked her if he and his friends could sit there with her. She complimented him on his eyes and fangs, telling him they were 'neat' before answering his question and returning to her copy of the Quibbler. As she was something of an oddity herself, he found that he could sympathize with her.

Lukas, looking fed up with the conversation, adjusted his position in his seat and returned to his book, which Harry saw was an encyclopedia on different species of dragons found in Scandinavia. Suddenly, Harry was struck with a realization.

"Say Lukas, if you're from Norway, shouldn't you be going to Durmstrang?" He asked incredulously, and Arthur snorted as Lukas gave a heavy sigh.

"Foreign exchange, remember? I did go to Durmstrang." Lukas replied, his voice cold enough to give Harry chills. "You know, for 'the Chosen One', you're not all that bright, are you?" He smirked, watching Harry's scared expression fall into one of comedic anger.

"Hey!" Harry shouted, his face red as he tried to glare at Lukas over Arthur's laughter and Dmitri's quiet giggles. But before he knew it, he was laughing too, and Lukas rolled his eyes. A tiny smile tugged at his lips as he turned his gaze back to his book, but it was almost immediately wiped away, replaced with a thoughtful frown.

_Okay, now that I've met Harry Potter, there's no way in hell that Alistair sent us here just so that we could get better control over our magic. Don't tell me that he recruited us for espionage? We're supposed to keep an eye on Harry, make sure that he doesn't get into trouble, aren't we?_

Lukas' gaze turned to Dmitri, who was still chuckling while petting Tepes.

_No way…Dmitri suffered through that just so that we could spy on Harry Potter?! _His grip on his book tightened, and Jotun chittered at him worriedly. Lukas paid his pet no mind, his blood beginning to boil. _He was practically brain dead! He barely ate! He wouldn't talk! All that…for this idiot?!_ Lukas levelled his glare at Harry, who was oblivious as he chatted with Arthur about the professors at Hogwarts.

Hassan, feeling something off about the room, looked at Lukas, his eyes widening. He tilted his head in confusion, frowning as well, and Lukas caught the look and sighed.

"It's not important. Don't worry about it." He muttered, waving Hassan away. But judging by the look on Hassan's face, he was not going to let it go any time soon.

_I think I need to have a talk with Alistair…_

* * *

><p>Some time later, Ron and Hermione appeared in the doorway to the car, looking harried.<p>

"What took you guys so long?" Harry asked accusingly, a grin on his face as he and Dmitri grabbed handfuls of Every Flavor Beans. Ron groaned, plopping down into an empty seat, Hermione sitting next to Arthur, who promptly scooted over to make more room for her.

"Well, the bloody Prefect meeting for one. Guess who the Prefects for Slytherin are?" He muttered, and Harry scowled.

"We ran into Malfoy earlier; git." Harry said thoughtfully, a dull smile on his face as he remembered Tepes' attack. Ron nodded, looking a bit miffed that Harry already knew his big surprise and confused as to why Harry looked so happy about it, and Hermione took her turn to speak, the expression on her face absolutely livid.

"And Pansy Parkinson, that toad! That's part of the reason we were so late Harry – the two of them were pushing around the first years and trying to take points away from them, even though the school year hasn't started yet!" She huffed, crossing her arms and her legs in a way that only girls could do. Arthur smirked beside her, running his hand through his hair. Lukas rolled his eyes once more.

"How about Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw?" Harry asked boredly, not really caring but not wanting to seem rude.

"Ernie Macmillan and Hannah Abbott for Hufflepuff," Ron said thickly, having pulling a chocolate frog out of his robes and stuffing it in his mouth, "And Anthony Goldstein and Padma Patil for Ravenclaw." He finished, swallowing the frog with difficulty. Harry nodded, pleasantly surprised. Ernie, while pompous, was always fair and kind, so it made sense that he was Prefect. Hannah was, in Harry's mind, an average girl, but smart and gentle. He didn't really know Anthony Goldstein all that well, and Padma was Parvarti's twin sister.

"Didn't you go to the Yule Ball with Padma?" Harry asked, his grin widening when he saw Ron blanch and mutter something unintelligible under his breath. It was then that Hermione noticed the five strangers in the car with them for the first time, and she gasped.

"You going to introduce us to your friends, Harry?" Ron asked, seeing Hermione's expression and looking a bit curious himself. Harry shrugged.

"They can introduce themselves, can't they?" He shot back, the grin on his face disappearing when he spat out his lemon flavored bean. Arthur sighed, taking that as his cue.

"I'm Arthur Kirkland; a pleasure to meet you. I'm going to assume you two are Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger?" He inquired with a light, teasing smirk. Ron and Hermione nodded, with Ron fighting to keep in his laughter at Arthur's eyebrows. Arthur gestured to Hassan, who was currently on his second card castle, this time using Dmitri's tarot cards, which were less likely to explode. "This is Muhammad Gupta Hassan, though he prefers Hassan."

"Hello." Ron and Hermione said in unison, and Hassan waved and smiled brightly back at them.

"That's Lukas Bondevik. Watch out, he breathes sparks." Arthur warned as Ron turned to say hello. Ron leaned back as Lukas glared at Arthur, and Lukas sighed for what felt like the millionth time, feeling the makings of a headache brewing around inside his skull.

Dmitri, upon seeing the two new people in the car, had pulled his hood back up and retreated back to the farthest seat from the door, curled up and staring at them in terrified curiosity. That had earned him more than a few worried looks from the others, but he didn't care. What happened with Malfoy, even though he acted cool and unbothered by it, hurt a lot more than he would let any of them know. Children were no better than adults, in fact they were worse, since they had no verbal filter whatsoever.

"That's Dmitri Dogaru, in the back." Arthur said, his emerald eyes softening when he saw Dmitri. Hassan scowled from his seat as Dmitri gave Ron and Hermione a tiny nod, trying to curl in on himself even further.

"And that's Luna Lovegood." Arthur finally said, introducing the last person in the car to Ron and Hermione. Hermione gave Luna a polite but confused hello, with Ron holding his sides as he desperately held in laughter at Luna's cork earrings and turnip necklace. Tepes jumped onto Ron's seat, startling him into a yelp.

"Wait…Malfoy was mumbling about a dragon dog when we stopped him earlier…was that you?" He asked, his eyes widening in excitement as Tepes barked happily, his little tail wagging at the memory of hurting the boy who teased his master. Ron pet the dog enthusiastically, showering him in 'good boy!'s and 'bloody brilliant!'s.

"And of course, the meeting didn't take the whole time – we ran into Neville on the way here…he lost Trevor again, and he wanted to show us his new plant. A Mimbelus Mimbletonia; very rare, but I'm sure that Neville will take good care of it." Hermione said, nodding in agreement with herself. Herbology was the round-faced, forgetful boy's best subject after all.

"Well, we should probably get changed into our robes…" Harry sighed, standing up and stretching. Hedwig hooted dolefully at him from her cage, Guin echoing her. "It can't be long now."

The seven of them agreed, all of them grabbing their robes and heading towards the bathrooms to change. Arthur was about to follow the rest of them when he noticed Dmitri standing in the back of the car, staring at his robes numbly.

"Dmitri? We need to change." He called quietly, and when he didn't get an answer, he made his way to the aisle and walked towards him. Now that he was close, he could see Dmitri rubbing the fabric between his thumb and forefinger, his eyes wide. "What's up?" He asked, putting a hand on Dmitri's shoulder, and Dmitri flinched at his touch, but didn't pull away.

"There's no hood…" Dmitri mumbled, turning his head towards Arthur, his shoulders slumped, eyes hollow looking and skin pale. "There's no hood…" He repeated hoarsely, balling the fabric in his fists as he began to tremble, nearly falling to the floor before Arthur yelped and caught him.

"Calm down, just breathe, Dmitri." He insisted, feeling a bit panicky himself. Dmitri had been fine twenty minutes ago! The only thing that could have possibly triggered this behavior was-

-Oh.

New people. People who were going to stare at him and tease him and call him names because of the way he looked. Arthur felt a burning fire of anger spark to life in his stomach, and he resolved to have a chat with Alistair once they had some time alone. Tepes was nudging Dmitri urgently with his nose, trying to get him to stand.

"I-I can't do it, I can't go Arthur, I don't want it to happen again!" Dmitri cried, one hand holding the robes to his chest and the other desperately clutching at Arthur's shirt, pulling him towards the ground too.

"Dmitri-" Arthur began, his heart breaking as Dmitri sobbed and shook his head frantically.

"I don't want to go, don't make me go! Arthur please don't make me go!" He sobbed, finally falling to his knees in the aisle, nearly landing on Tepes, who scurried out of the way just in time. Arthur sighed, not knowing what to do and taking a few deep breaths of his own, yanked Dmitri to his feet by his arm.

"Dmitri Adrian Dogaru, you are going to listen to me without interrupting." He growled, pulling Dmitri towards him and staring him down. Dmitri shrunk back, scared. "You are going to go to Hogwarts with us. Yes, people are going to tease you, bully you, and be scared of the way you look. That's life. You think I never get teased for my eyebrows? I know it sucks, but you can do it. You've got all of us to back you up, and if anyone ever hurts you, they've got Lukas, Hassan, and I to deal with." He snarled, shaking Dmitri lightly.

"A-Arthur…I don't-" Dmitri stammered, shrinking back even farther. Arthur let go of Dmitri, throwing his hands in the air in exasperation.

"Yes, I know you're scared! I'm scared too! But not for me," He softened his tone, lowering his arms and poking Dmitri in the chest, "I'm worried about you. Remember what Alfred always said?" He asked, and Dmitri tightened his hold on the robes, turning his head to the side.

"'Fake your confidence until it's real.'" He mumbled, and Arthur nodded, smiling brightly. He clapped Dmitri on the back, which made him automatically straighten up and broaden his shoulders. Arthur then faced Dmitri properly, putting his hands on his shoulders, a twinkle in his emerald eyes.

"You'll be alright." Arthur whispered to him, squeezing his shoulders. Dmitri shuddered, but nodded.

"Well well well." There came a loud, drawling voice from the doorway, and Arthur turned to glare at Malfoy, who was grinning in triumphant glee. "I knew you were a freak, Fangs, but I didn't think it would go this fa-" Tepes shot out of nowhere, attempting to rip Malfoy's throat out with all his puppy might. Malfoy howled in pain, grabbing Tepes by the scruff and throwing him at Dmitri, who just managed to catch the cub at the last second.

"You keep that thing on a leash, or you'll be the one caged, freak!" Malfoy spat, glaring at Dmitri, who straightened up and glared at Draco, Arthur's words echoing in his mind. He put the best smirk he could manage on his face.

"Say Draco, did you know that ferret tastes good roasted, with a side of barbecue sauce?" He shot at Malfoy, and Arthur grinned, happy to see this change in Dmitri. Draco sputtered, his skin paling to whiter than Gilbert's hair. Dmitri bared his fangs, Tepes mirroring his look, and Draco left, trying in vain to fix his hair.

"Nice!" Arthur cheered, slapping Dmitri on the shoulder once more. "See? That's what I'm talking about!" Dmitri was quiet, frowning down at Tepes, who adjusted the way he was sitting in Dmitri's arms so that he was more comfortable.

"Arthur…do you really think he could do that to me?" He whispered, almost to himself, and Arthur almost didn't catch the words over the roar of the train.

"What? Cage you? Pretty sure that's considered inhumane and is, above anything else, illegal." Arthur said sarcastically, on the inside frowning. Why would Dmitri think that? It wasn't like they couldn't overpower Draco in an instant, so quickly the prat wouldn't even have time to blink. Dmitri nodded, putting Tepes down as he scooped up his robes from the floor where he'd dropped them, bundling them close to his chest.

"Thank you." Dmitri said softly, and Arthur gave him a blinding grin, grabbing Dmitri by the hand and practically dragging him to the bathrooms to change. Dmitri resolved to tell Arthur about his nightmares later. The damn nightmares, the stupid things that would sometimes happen while he was awake now too, never leaving him alone, hurting him, breaking him, bit by bit.

He'll tell Arthur later…he didn't want to ruin Arthur's good mood at finally returning to Hogwarts, after all.

He would be okay.

* * *

><p>Finally, after they'd all changed into their robes and had a few more minutes of down time, the train screeched to a stop. Dmitri had curled back up on his seat, running his hands over the collar of his robes, brushing his hair into his eyes, staying as far away from the rest of them as possible. But he was still in the conversation, joking around despite his behavior, so Arthur wasn't too worried. Hassan had allowed Ron to smash his card castle, and had given the cards back to Dmitri. He was now attempting to put Hara in her basket, with Hara fighting him fang and claw.<p>

Lukas had put his book away and placed Jotun in his cage, and was now talking to Dmitri and Hermione about dragons. His cold exterior had melted away soon after the conversation started, and he was chatting with them animatedly and passionately. Arthur, Harry and Ron were talking about broomsticks, and Luna was just staring around at them all. As the train halted, Arthur peered out the window.

The weather had been unable to make up its mind for the journey, sometimes showing weak sunlight through the clouds and other times drizzling half-heartedly, which was what it was doing now.

"Leave your luggage." Hermione reminded them all, and they all stood up, stretching out any kinks and pains in their joints. They then dove into the mad rush for the doors, which had hissed open the moment the train stopped. As soon as Dmitri saw the giant crowd of students pushing each other around in the hallway, his eyes widened and he grabbed onto the nearest hand he could reach, which just so happened to be Luna's.

Luna turned her head, surprised, to see Dmitri ducking his head to hide his eyes, his mouth shut tight. He was practically hyperventilating, his eyes flicking around everywhere in panic. She squeezed his hand reassuringly, holding her head high and leading him towards the door with a grace and confidence only a ballerina could rival.

The whole time they walked, following Ron's vibrant red hair, she talked aimlessly about Hogwarts, her dad's work, and the creatures she and her dad had found while exploring Europe over summer break. Dmitri couldn't hear her over the roar of the crowd, but he was grateful for the attempts to distract him. They finally made it out to the train station platform, and he let go of her hand, flashing her a thankful smile. She returned the smile, then danced away to join her Ravenclaw friends.

"First years! First years to me!" There came a loud, booming, heavily accented voice and Dmitri frowned, thinking it familiar. Arthur had stopped in his tracks, his eyes wide.

"No way…he didn't!" Arthur whispered, but was quickly shoved along by an impatient Lukas, as Hermione said that the foreign exchange students were supposed to come with them to the carriages. Arthur's denial train was picking up speed, reassuring himself over and over again that Alistair had not dragged Kyle into this mess, since there was no logical reason for the Australian to be at Hogwarts. Kyle didn't even know any magic, so he couldn't be here, right? Right.

They caught up with Harry, Ron, and Hermione as Arthur thought, his eyebrows pulled down in a scowl. He paid no mind to Hassan teasingly nudging Dmitri with his elbow, waggling his eyebrows and grinning as Dmitri blushed and mumbled, pushing him away.

Arthur raised his gaze to the front again, seeing Harry stopped in front of one of the Thestrals, as though stunned. Ron and Hermione were unable to see them, looking at Harry as though he was hallucinating. Arthur sighed, climbing in the carriage with them, giving one of the Thestrals a pat as he walked by in full view of Harry, so that he knew they were real.

"Frightful looking creatures, aren't they?" He asked Harry when the four of them had climbed into a carriage, Lukas, Dmitri, Hassan, and a round-faced, pudgy boy getting into the carriage behind them. Harry nodded, still staring dumbfounded at the Thestrals. The moment Arthur pulled the carriage door shut behind them, it began to move, rumbling and bouncing up the dirt path.

"It's just as beautiful as ever." Ron sighed when the castle finally came into view, his eyes wide. Arthur had to agree; the sleek black castle, with its many towers, turrets, and glowing yellow windows, was just the same as it always was…unlike the rest of the world around it. Maybe that's why Arthur liked this place so much. It was the one constant, unchanging place in his life, and he loved it. A fresh wave of excitement watched over him, and he bounced up and down in his seat, forgetting to act proper and mature for a few moments with Hermione watching him bemusedly.

"Excited, Arthur?" Harry asked, finally putting the strange, zombie like horses out of his mind as Arthur nodded, a blinding smile on his face. That smile seemed to light the whole carriage with its glow, and Harry couldn't help but feel happy too. Arthur laughed as the carriage pulled to a stop, and it was like the ground itself rumbled, and it put a grin on all of their faces. Arthur just felt…alive, somehow, even more so than they were. Just being around him made Harry feel happy and safe, the same way being around Dumbledore did.

It was odd, but Harry shoved it to the back of his mind as they bounded into Hogwarts, with Lukas, Dmitri, Hassan, and Neville on their heels. Professor McGonagall was waiting for them in the entrance hall, her pointy hat and stern expression making her immediately identifiable.

"Potter, Weasley, Granger." She greeted, gesturing the seven of them over to her, Neville being dragged along with the crowd helplessly into the great hall. "You've made friends with the foreign exchange students, I see. Well, I'm assuming that that's who you are." She said, looking over the rim of her glasses at the four nations.

Lukas and Arthur stood straight as rulers in her gaze, and Hassan was a little busy marveling at the castle, looking around at everything in wonder. Dmitri hid a little behind Arthur, keeping his mouth shut and his gaze pointed at the floor. Arthur nodded, and she gave him a rare smile.

"You four must go with the first years to be sorted into your houses." She said, and they scurried off to the entrance hall to wait, with McGonagall dismissing the Golden Trio to sit with their house. As soon as they walked through the doors, Hermione gasped, her face going red. Looking around, Harry and Ron saw that she was not the only girl with that expression.

Sitting at the professor's table was an extremely handsome red-haired man, with eyes so green that Harry could see them from the doorway on the other end of the room. He had a pointed, elfin face, with an iron cuff on both ears and hair a bright enough shade of scarlet to put the entire Weasley family's to shame.

Harry brushed past a giggling Lavender Brown and Parvarti Patil as they sat at the Gryffindor table, frowning as he examined the rest of the professors. Snape, was unfortunately, still there. Sitting next to the red haired man was a squat, toady looking witch who was wearing a ghastly outfit that seemed to consist entirely of pink and lacy frills. The red haired man was quite pointedly ignoring her, making his fork levitate with his wand disinterestedly.

The two of them looked familiar, but Harry couldn't put their fingers on why. No, what he was more concerned about was the missing Care of Magical Creatures professor, AKA Rubeus Hagrid, one of Harry's first friends and the one who told him about his true parentage. The wild looking half-giant was missing, and Harry was worried that Draco and his precious daddy had finally managed to get him sacked.

"Where's Hagrid?" He asked Ron, who now that he was sitting at the table, was completely preoccupied by the thought of food.

"Who cares? 'M starvin'." Ron grumbled, glaring at his plate like he could will his food to appear in front of him. Harry rolled his eyes, adjusting his glasses and turning instead to talk to Nearly Headless Nick, the Gryffindor house ghost. As Nick bemoaned his latest rejection from the Headless Hunt, McGonagall entered the great hall, a small gaggle of terrified first years behind her. Compared to the first years, Arthur and his friends looked like giants, and all eyes were immediately on them. Harry noticed with a worried frown that Dmitri looked like he was going to be sick…or pass out, one of the two.

With the entrance of the first years, Harry was one of the few to notice a tall, broad-shouldered man with rusty brown hair and a band-aid on his nose sneak in and sit at the professor's table…where Hagrid usually sat. With a sigh, Harry slumped on the bench, realizing that Hagrid wasn't here. Maybe he was sick.

He zoned out through most of the Sorting, picking through the Sorting Hat's cryptic new song in his head, and he could tell Hermione was doing the same. Ron, of course, was still thinking about the feast to come. When the last of the first years were sorted (with Hufflepuff giving a hearty applause to their latest member), it was just the foreign exchange students left.

Arthur looked excited as usual, bouncing subtly on the balls of his feet. Hassan looked nervous, but excited too, fiddling with the golden band on his wrist anxiously. Lukas, as per usual, looked cold and indifferent to the hundreds of whispers and stares being sent his way. And Dmitri had chosen to look at the floor instead of the students staring at him, and appeared to be taking _very_ deep breaths.

McGonagall announced their presence at Hogwarts, giving the students the whole lecture on treating them properly and giving them a warm Hogwarts welcome. Then, she shook out the list of new students, pushed her glasses up her nose, and called out, "Bondevik, Lukas!"

Lukas walked calmly to the stool, and Harry had a feeling that the glare on Lukas' face was just his way of showing nerves. He sat on the stool and placed the hat on his head, waiting.

_Something troubling you, Lukas?_ Lukas heard the hat whisper into his ear, sounding amused.

_Nothing you could help me with. _He shot back, and he heard a wheezing chuckle.

_I've had the pleasure of meeting a few of your kind before…but where to put you? _It mused, seemingly thinking hard. _Brave, very brave…such sorrow for a young boy such as yourself, and a burning desire to protect those closest to you…exceedingly intelligent, though you don't use it to help others…a hard worker…but when you work hardest is when you're trying to accomplish a goal…so the answer is…_

"SLYTHERIN!" The hat shouted, and Lukas stood, the barely noticeable relief in his expression apparent for only the fewest of seconds. The mass of silver and green burst into cheers, obviously pleased that they got one of the foreign exchange students for themselves. Harry saw, an evil grin on his face, Malfoy pale and move further down the table, away from where Lukas sat himself down.

"Dogaru, Dmitri!" McGonagall shouted, and Dmitri walked shakily to the stool and sit on it, making sure the hat covered his eyes.

_So scared…_The hat said softly into his ears, and the slight twitch of Dmitri's feet indicated the curling of toes to the crowd of students watching him. _And you have good reason to be, poor child…not too brave, but you are when it counts, and that's what matters…you're not ambitious either, liking to go with the flow around you…but where you truly shine is your mind. Working together with your heart, you could be a great wizard, my boy…but let's worry about that later…for now, you belong in-_

"RAVENCLAW!" It screamed, and Dmitri practically slid off the stool, walking almost drunkenly to the crowd of blue and bronze. Harry noticed Padma Patil give him a warm handshake, and Dmitri smiled and sat by Luna, who smiled daintily at him, patting his arm comfortingly.

"Hassan, Muhammad Gupta!" McGonagall shouted, and Hassan jumped, sitting down lightly on the stool. Hassan was so small the hat fell easily over his ears, and Harry heard Ron chuckle beside him.

_Ooh, now this is different…_The hat whispered, making Hassan jump again, having had quite enough of voices in his head for one month, thank you. _Don't worry, once you take me off, I'll be gone. But so very angry…such rage and fury…I wonder if you can point it in the right direction, hmm? Not my place to say though, not at all…let's see here…not a bad mind, brilliant at puzzles. A good leader, though you're worried that people won't take you seriously…courageous, yes…but…you value hard work and integrity over anything else, believing that all it takes is an idea and a few friends to create miracles…the only place for you is-_

"HUFFLEPUFF!" The hat screeched, and Hassan took it off his head, looking extremely pleased to do so. He walked to the table of yellow and black, and Harry saw Ernie Macmillan puff out his chest and give Hassan a hearty handshake, sitting him down at the table. That left Arthur alone by the stool, and Harry saw with a jolt both the red-haired man and the man with the band-aid on his nose staring intently at him.

"Kirkland, Arthur!" McGonagall said, rolling up the list. Arthur walked to the stool, his head held high and shoulders wide. Harry had to admire his courage; when he was called up to be Sorted, he nearly fainted from nerves.

_Hello again, Arthur. My, how you've changed._ The hat began, and Arthur sighed in his head.

_It was inevitable that I would become a completely different person from who I was back then. Time takes its toll on us all. Except for you, apparently_. He added at the last second, and he could have sworn the hat snorted.

_Let's take a look, shall we? Ooh, guilt, plenty of guilt…fear…a desperate need for a chance to prove yourself…smart as a whip, as always, Arthur, that hasn't changed one bit…ambitious, but not as much as you used to be…got knocked down quite a few pegs, have you? Learned your lesson…you've come to appreciate honest, hard work, but the thing that stands out the most…yes, the one thing that hasn't changed in all those years…I think it's time for a change of pace, don't you? So this time around, we'll go with…_

"GRYFFINDOR!" The hat screamed, and Arthur stood, sweeping the hat off his head as the table on the right burst into applause, with Harry, Ron, and Hermione clapping and cheering extra loudly. Arthur sat by Harry, who high-fived him. In unison, identical grins sprouted on their faces, and they could only think one thing.

_It's good to be back._

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Ta Da! I personally felt like the ending was little rushed, but we've all got curfews. What Lukas said in Norwegian to Draco was something along the lines of, "It's of no concern to you, you little shit." No, but seriously, it's like Malfoy seeks out Harry on the train rides! He's always there!**

**Anyone else feeling some Luna/Dmitri shipping in the works? Of course, its not gonna work out, seeing as how Dmitri's going to be gone next year and I myself am a very serious Nevuna shipper. Besides, he's a nation. Maybe there'll be a little bit of romance, I don't know, but there's definitely some fluff coming up.**

**Review please! Hope you liked it!**

***bows and moonwalks off stage***


	4. Stumble

**A/N: Woot woot get your party hats! ITS ALMOST CHRISTMAS, BITCHES!**

**Celebratory chapter for you guys, as it is soon going to be 2015, and you know what that means...it'll only be another ten months until next Halloween! Also, my birthday is coming up soon - I'll be turning 18. Help, please, I don't want to be a responsible adult! Nooo!**

**Also, guess who's finally appearing in this chapter. You guessed it, the Bitch of Bitchiness herself, Umbridge. I really hope I wrote her right, because yeah, she's a humongous dickhead, but she is a rather interesting character. I mean, we wanted Harry to defeat Voldemort, but we wanted her DEAD.**

**There will be some more UK brother fluff here, as well as a flashback. Oh, and Bulgaria is mentioned too - the human name I use for him is Milen.**

* * *

><p><strong>Disclaimer: Donut owns absolutely nothing used in this fanfic. Harry Potter and Hetalia belong to their respective owners each.<strong>

* * *

><p>Hassan couldn't help but smile. The worst part of the going to Hogwarts business seemed to be over, and he couldn't remember the last time he had been that nervous. As a human, at least.<p>

Hassan categorized things into two places. Human and Nation. That had definitely been a human moment…most of what had been happening were human moments, ever since he had been de-aged. He had learned long ago that getting nation things mixed up with human things, and vice versa, always ended badly. He was too tired of being hurt because he couldn't keep the two separated. Just too tired.

The boy who had given him a handshake, Ernie, (Hassan noted the Prefect badge on his chest, just like Ron and Hermione had) sat him down at the Hufflepuff table, yammering about this and that. As Arthur swaggered to the Gryffindor table, Hassan saw him and Harry high-five each other, and he smiled. His eyes turned to the ceiling above, which he wasn't entirely sure was a ceiling and was just the sky, his smile widening at the setting sun peeking out from behind a cloud at the northwest corner of the hall.

He loved the sun. He didn't know if that was just because his nation was naturally sunny and hot, but it just made him feel calm and happy.

"Hassan, are you listening?" Ernie asked, and Hassan nodded, finally tearing his gaze away from the sun to look at Ernie. He offered him an apologetic smile, and Ernie had a confused look on his face. "You don't talk much, do you?" He asked incredulously, and Hassan shook his head, tapping his throat. Ernie squinted, peering at the skin, and Hassan had to fight down a smile.

Since there were going to be a lot of kids at Hogwarts pestering him about why he didn't talk, Alistair had altered the skin on Hassan's neck, creating a faint scar for any prying students to look at. That was one of the many reasons Hassan was growing to like Alistair. He didn't ask questions, he just did what had to be done.

"Ooh, that looks like it hurt. How'd that happen?" Ernie asked, and Hassan winced, putting his hand to his head. "Don't remember?" Hassan shook his head nope. "That is unfortunate. Sorry for bringing it up, Hassan." Ernie apologized sincerely, and Hassan waved him off nonchalantly. Hassan noted movement from the corner of his eye, and he turned his head to see a fat, portly ghost shimmering next to him, staring at him curiously.

"Ah yes, this is the Fat Friar, the Hufflepuff house ghost." Ernie said politely, introducing the two of them to each other. Hassan gave a tiny wave, suddenly remembering the few ghosts he had seen in one of the pyramids, which were a lot more…gruesome looking and malicious than this one. Those ghosts looked more like the one that was hanging around the Slytherin table, though not as pretty.

There was a bit of an awkward silence as Hassan and the Fat Friar stared at each other, and Hassan suddenly remembered the last few times he'd met ghosts face to face. The most recent time was about twenty years ago – the Great Pyramid of Giza. He couldn't recall why he was there, but he'd met the ghost of a thief that had broken into the pyramid, gotten lost, and died due to a curse put on the treasure he'd managed to grab before becoming lost. The thief hadn't been more than twenty years old physically, and Hassan didn't know how long the spirit had actually been trapped there.

The thief had followed Hassan around the entire time he was there, but was almost completely silent. It wasn't until Hassan was inches from the exit, inches from leaving the pyramid, that he spoke.

"Y-You…you can take me home, can't you?" He had whispered, fiddling with his hands. Hassan stared, not expecting the spirit to talk, much less talk to him. What did he mean, take him home? Any home the boy may have had was gone now, and Hassan had a feeling that he couldn't leave the pyramid even if he wanted to. The ghost drifted closer, his silver form shimmering, casting weak flickering light on the stone walls around them. "P-Please, take me home…"

Hassan hadn't known what to do. He felt so sorry for the ghost, he forgot about his ethereal form and tried to grab his hand, to squeeze it reassuringly. The moment his skin met the cold smoke, the boy smiled, and he began to glow. Bright white, so brightly Hassan had to shield his eyes, and he heard a small "Thank you…" before the light died down. When Hassan reopened his eyes, blinking away black spots, the boy was gone. Hassan had been very confused.

Ghosts usually followed him like that, asking him to bring them home. That was the first time that had ever happened though, since it was the first time he'd intentionally touched a ghost. Maybe he could relate more to the young thief.

The Fat Friar, after a few more moments of intensely staring at Hassan, drifted away, a sort of dazed look on his face. Hassan turned to see Ernie frowning at the Friar's retreating back thoughtfully.

"That's odd…he always has something to say…" Ernie muttered, then their attention was diverted by the old man with the long beard and crooked nose standing up, smiling warmly at the students and spreading his arms widely. The moment he stood, the whole hall went silent, the conversation dying down into hushed whispers and then nothing at all in a matter of seconds. Hassan could tell that this man was highly respected by both students and teachers alike, so he gave the man his full focus. Just by looking at him, he could see that the old man was wise, brave, and…very sad. Sadness darkened the air around him like a cloud, but he had a happy smile on his face, and nobody else seemed to notice, so Hassan didn't bring attention to it.

"To our newcomers," Dumbledore said, his voice ringing through the silent great hall, "welcome! And to our old hands, welcome back! There is a time for speech making, but this is not it. Tuck in!" There was a round of laughter and a few hearty cheers as Dumbledore finished his speech and sat down. Hassan was confused, until before his eyes, food of all kinds appeared on the table. His eyes nearly bugged out of his skull – food, out of nowhere!

Seeing that everyone else was grabbing portions of their favorite meals, piling their golden plates high, Hassan quickly did as the others were doing. He'd never really noticed how hungry he was until now; he'd had a few candies on the train, but not enough. As he ate (he noticed with a snort that he had a lot better table manners than some of the other boys at this table), he did what he always did in large crowds. He listened.

Two girls named Hannah and Susan were talking happily about what they did over the summer, occasionally saying Harry's name in a way that peaked his interest. They appeared to be slightly afraid of him, though they tried their best to hide it. Hassan couldn't for the life of them figure out why they were scared of Harry. He was kind, and brave, if the stories Arthur had told him were true.

Ernie and another boy named Justin were talking about that sport called Quidditch, which Dmitri and Arthur often argued over, the best teams and whatnot. Apparently, Dmitri's friend Milen and Arthur's older brother Patrick made it to the finals and had an epic face-off game, and Milen's team lost. Arthur didn't know whether or not to rub it in Dmitri's face, or keep on denying his relationship with Patrick. Hassan had quickly learned to tune out these conversations when they started, as he'd never heard of Quidditch before, and sports weren't really his thing in the first place.

He could hear snippets of other conversations too. Most of it was about summer activities, grueling homework, bits of gossip about who likes who, admiring new robes and haircuts, new pets, normal conversations for teenagers. But there were a few pieces of conversation that he stored away to contemplate later. Like how Dumbledore was going mad and was slowly becoming unfit to be headmaster of the school. How Harry supposedly lied about the Dark Lord's return to gain more attention. Whether or not Harry was telling the truth. Grievances for some poor boy named Cedric Diggory. How some of their parents didn't want them to come back this year because of Dumbledore and Harry.

_It was strange_, he thought bemusedly as he sipped on a rather interesting drink called pumpkin juice. _Almost all of them have known Harry since their first year – they know what kind of person he is. So why do they suddenly not trust him? I can see that they all adore and respect Dumbledore…so why the growing suspicion?_

When he had finished his meal, the last crumbs fading away into nothing and leaving the plates and utensils as sparkling clean as they were before, Dumbledore stood once more. Hassan felt pleasantly sleepy, and he vaguely wondered how much longer it would be before he got to crawl into a warm bed.

"Well, now that we are digesting another magnificent feast, I beg a few moments of your attention for the usual start of term notices," said Dumbledore. "First years and transfer students ought to know that the forest in the grounds is out of bounds to students; and a few older students ought to know by now too." Hassan saw Harry, Ron, and Hermione exchange smirks, and Lukas rolling his eyes.

"Mr. Filch, the caretaker, has asked me, for what he tells me is the four hundred and sixty-second time, to remind you all that magic is not permitted in corridors between classes –" Hassan noted that many of the students rolled their eyes and grinned mischievously. He had a feeling that this rule was largely ignored. "-nor are a number of other things, all of which can be checked on the extensive list now fastened to Mr. Filch's office door.

"We have three changes in staffing this year. It is my regret to inform you that our History of Magic Teacher, Professor Binns, has decided to take a yearlong sojourn in southern Italy to brush up on some of the recent history there." Dumbledore said, and Hassan saw many of the students stifle cheers and hide large grins behind their hands; this Professor Binns must not have been a class favorite. "We are pleased to welcome Professor Kirkland, who will be taking over the management of his classes until such time as he returns."

There was a copious amount of enthusiastic applause as Alistair waved his hand casually, and Hassan heard many of the girls around him sigh and swoon. Hassan wasn't quite sure how Alistair had already made such an impression on the student body not one day into the school year, but he did it. A quick look around, and Hassan's eyes froze on Arthur, who was staring wide eyed – no, horrified – at the person sitting next to Alistair. Hassan had a bit of trouble remembering his name, but he got it. That was Kyle Kirkland, wasn't it? Another nation, one of Arthur's old colonies, Australia.

Did Arthur not know Kyle was coming? Was that why he had an expression on his face like he just got punched right between the eyes by Alfred? Alistair certainly hadn't told Hassan about it.

"And we are also pleased to welcome Professor Farren, who will be taking Care of Magical Creatures classes." There was polite applause for Kyle, who smiled bashfully. Hassan noticed Harry, Ron, and Hermione glance at each other, worry etched in all of their faces. He made a mental note to investigate that later.

"Finally, please welcome Professor Umbridge, our new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor." There was a few people who applauded out of courtesy, though it quickly died off into silence. She didn't seem to be put off by this, however, keeping that sickening smile on her toad-like face. Just looking at her made Hassan's stomach curl uncomfortably. There was something _wrong_ about her.

He looked back at Ernie worriedly, wanting to see if he could see it too. Apparently he couldn't, though his polite smile looked rather forced. Why couldn't anybody else see that, that…he didn't know what it was. There was some kind of evil smoke curling around her body, bright purple and malicious. W-What was that? He couldn't tear his eyes away from it…wh-what…why…?

Ernie's attention was pulled away from the staff table when he heard Hassan whimper softly, and he looked at him, frowning. Hassan had slid down in his seat, staring at the horrendously pink woman with wide, terrified eyes.

"Hassan? Hey." He whispered, keeping his voice very low as he grabbed Hassan's shoulder and shook him gently. Hassan shook his head vigorously when he heard Ernie's concerned voice, and he looked at him, trying to put a smile on his face. "You alright?" Ernie asked, and Hassan shakily nodded.

What the hell was that? Why did that purple smoke entrance him like that, make him unable to move, unable to breathe? That warm sleepy feeling was gone, replaced by the feeling that he was either going to throw up or pass out at any second. More than likely both. He made sure to keep his eyes firmly _off_ the woman as Dumbledore continued his speech.

"Tryouts for the house Quidditch teams will take place on the-" There was an almost palpable surprise as the pink woman got to her feet. It had actually taken a moment for everyone to notice why Dumbledore had stopped talking, seeing as how Umbridge was not much taller standing than she was sitting. Everyone's eyes were on her as she gave a stupid little cough, and it was abundantly clear she was intending to make a speech of her own.

Hassan saw Alistair's lip curl angrily when she stood, and he felt a bizarre rush of satisfaction knowing that he wasn't alone in his dislike of her.

Judging by the rest of the staff's faces, he and Alistair definitely weren't alone in this. The stern lady's lips were pursed into a thin white line, and Kyle and another witch with flyaway grey hair's eyebrows had flown upwards. Even Dumbledore himself looked mildly surprised, and the students were all staring at her as though she had grown a second, uglier head. It was quite comical, actually.

"Thank you, Headmaster," Umbridge simpered, her high-pitched, breathy voice taking everyone by surprise. "For those kind words of welcome."

As soon as she opened her mouth, Hassan's ears were assaulted by the most god awful sound he'd ever heard. High-pitched, ringing, pulsing, screaming, and so unbearably _loud _that it took every ounce of willpower he had not to scream. As it was, his eyes immediately began to water, and he bit his lip, clapping his hands over his ears in an attempt to block out that stupid noise. His head hit the table with an almost silent thud, and for the first time in nearly one thousand and five hundred years, he found himself _wanting_ to speak.

He wanted to yell "Shut up!" at the woman. He wanted to beg the students and staff to make her stop talking. He wanted to tell Alistair that he wanted to go home. He wanted his mother.

At their own tables, Dmitri, Lukas, and Arthur winced, her voice grating annoyingly on their ears. Even Alistair and Kyle were scowling at her, Kyle rubbing his ear as he glared. The rest of the students had an expression on their faces that was some sort of combination of shocked and offended, as this woman was treating them all like five year olds. Umbridge gave another little cough, and continued.

"Well, it is lovely to be back at Hogwarts, I must say!" She smiled at them, showing off rather pointed teeth. "And to see such happy little faces looking back at me!" If she noticed that all the students looked anything but happy, she didn't comment on it. In fact, the Slytherins (Lukas included) looked downright murderous.

Ernie saw Hassan put his head on the table, his hands clapped tightly over his ears. He was twitching violently, and Ernie barely heard tiny, strangled cries coming from him, so quiet that nobody else at the table heard. He was now thoroughly worried about Hassan, but it didn't really panic him until he saw a small crimson puddle forming underneath his head.

"Hassan!" He whispered in slight fear, grabbing him by the shoulder and pulling him upright as Umbridge cleared her throat _again _("_Hem, hem_"). She plowed on with her speech, some of the breathiness in her voice gone, to be replaced by a dull, business like tone.

"The Ministry of Magic has always considered the education of young witches and wizards to be of vital importance. The rare gifts with which you were born may come to nothing if not nurtured and honed by careful instruction. The ancient skills unique to the Wizarding community must be passed down through the generations lest we lose them forever. The treasure trove of magical knowledge amassed by our ancestors must be guarded, replenished, and polished by those who have been called to the noble profession of teaching."

Professor Umbridge stopped there and gave a little bow to the professors lined up behind her, none of which bowed back.

Ernie wasn't listening to her speech anymore, preoccupied by Hassan, who had bit his lip so hard the skin broke and was now profusely bleeding. Hassan's eyes were glazed over, glassy, and Ernie had to wonder what had caused this. But before he could contemplate it more, he handed Hassan a napkin, and he took his hands away from his ears. Trembling hard, Hassan took the offered napkin and placed it over his lip, looking dazed and half-dead. Umbridge coughed for what is now the fourth time.

"Every Headmaster and Headmistress of Hogwarts has brought something new to the weighty task of governing this historic school, and that is as it should be, for without progress there will be stagnation and decay. There again, progress for progress's sake must be discouraged, for our tried and tested traditions often require no tinkering. A balance, then, between old and new, between permanence and change, between tradition and innovation…"

The student body found their attentiveness ebbing away with each sentence, and soon the silence was thoroughly broken up by students putting their heads together, chatting and giggling. At the Ravenclaw table, Cho Chang was gossiping with her friends. Luna had taken out the Quibbler again, and she and Dmitri were reading it, their foreheads nearly touching.

Harry had the belief that a riot could have broken out just then in the Great Hall, and Umbridge would have plowed on with her speech. While the students were restless, the staff were listening attentively, their eyes narrowed. McGonagall's eyebrows had pulled together in a deep scowl that made her look like a hawk. Kyle had lost interest, though he was still staring at Umbridge, his eyes unfocused.

Hermione, to her credit, was drinking in every word, though from the look on her face, whatever Umbridge was saying was not good.

"…because some changes will be for the better, while others will come, in the fullness of time, to be recognized as errors of judgment. Meanwhile, some old habits will be retained, and rightly so, whereas others, outmoded and outworn, must be abandoned. Let us move forward, then, into a new era of openness, effectiveness, and accountability, intent on preserving what ought to be preserved, perfecting what needs to be perfected, and pruning wherever we find practices that ought to be prohibited."

She sat down, and Dumbledore clapped. The staff followed his example, though their hands seemed to be reluctant in doing so, only clapping once or twice before stopping. A handful of students joined in, the end of her speech taking them by surprise. As the already miniscule applause diminished into silence, Dumbledore stood again.

"Thank you very much, Professor Umbridge, that was most illuminating," he said amiably, bowing to her. "Now – as I was saying, Quidditch tryouts will be held…"

Hassan shook his head blankly, trying to get the gears turning once more. When she closed her mouth and sat down, the noise stopped at once, and the echoes still rattled about in his skull. He felt clammy, too hot but at the same time very cold, and just breathing seemed to take more energy than it gave him. He was vaguely aware of a stinging pain in his bottom lip and Ernie staring at him in hardly concealed worry, but his mind was too busy to focus on those things.

What was that? No, more importantly, what was _she?_ The noise coming out of her mouth, the bizarre, violently violet smoke curling around her squat body? She almost seemed…unhuman. He would know, of course. There were faint tendrils waving lazily around another professor seated at the table; a man with greasy, shaggy black hair and a prominent nose who was glaring around at everyone and everything.

Hassan's dulled eyes saw Harry, Ron, and Arthur listening to Hermione, Arthur nodding along and occasionally adding his own bits to the conversation. Dmitri and Luna were still reading the magazine. Lukas was, as expected, scowling around at his fellow Slytherins, offering short, snappish answers to any questions they may have had.

"Are you sure you're alright, Hassan? I can escort you to the hospital wing if you need it." Ernie asked, his voice still not above a whisper. Hassan nodded in an 'I'm okay' gesture. The dizziness and pain were ebbing away slowly, and he had a feeling that the sooner he got away from that Umbridge woman, the better. There was suddenly a loud scraping of the benches being pushed away from the tables, and Hassan jumped. Dumbledore had just dismissed the students, and everyone was standing up and leaving, stretching and yawning.

Hassan stood a bit woozily, Ernie telling him that he needed to leave to instruct the first years where to go. He slowly followed, his feet feeling like lead. The only thing he wanted was a warm bed, and maybe a shower…no, just the bed. If he took a shower in this state he'd probably fall asleep from the warm water and hit his head on something.

He realized, as he was leaving the Great Hall with the other Hufflepuffs, that his hand was still pressing the napkin to his lip. He peeled it away, tenderly poking the area. Just as he'd suspected, he'd already healed.

That's one thing that hadn't changed.

* * *

><p>Harry was thoroughly surprised to see Professor McGonagall waiting for him outside the Great Hall, intercepting him as he was on his way to the Gryffindor Common Room.<p>

"Mr. Potter, do not forget that you will be sharing a dorm with the transfer students." She said sharply as he approached, and he facepalmed. He'd nearly forgotten about that! Well, it wasn't like he minded; Arthur, Dmitri, and Hassan were all nice. He wasn't quite sure about Lukas, since he had been very cold and unfriendly on the train. It should really have come as no surprise that he was Slytherin material.

They waited for Arthur and his friends to join them, Hassan looking rather…well, pale. He kept glancing over his shoulder, a look of dim confusion on his face. McGonagall greeted them all, then swept away, leading them along a route Harry had never used before. There was still a frustratingly large amount of staircases to climb, and Harry found it both insulting and impressive that McGonagall, though far older than them, was the first one to reach the floor they were heading for.

"Wait, didn't Ron have to stay with them too?" Harry asked McGonagall, suddenly remembering that she had expressly met with both of them, not just him.

"Mr. Weasley must first attend to his prefect duties, and then he will be joining you." She replied, and Harry found a sour taste in his mouth. Right. Ron was a prefect, unlike him. They travelled along a corridor, and then came to a painting of a beautiful red haired woman, who smiled warmly at all of them.

"Password?" She asked.

"_Lepus Curpaeums_." McGonagall replied shortly, and the woman's smile grew as her portrait swung away from the wall, revealing a hole. They all went inside, McGonagall with some difficulty, and Harry had to stop and stare. This place was way nicer than the Gryffindor Common Room.

The walls were black, the carpet white. There was a painting of a red dragon on one of the walls, and as they stared, it yawned and snorted painted sparks. It moved with the fluidity of oil on water. There was a roaring fireplace in one corner, and six beds were arranged in a circle around the octagonal shaped room. Lukas immediately sat on the bed closest to the dragon, as though daring any of them to take it for their own.

There were card tables, armchairs, and couches arranged around a sparkling fountain in the middle of the room, which spouted crystal blue water. Stained glass windows were placed here and there, and there were two doors leading off to what were no doubt bathrooms.

"While you are at Hogwarts, you are more than welcome to spend your nights in either your house common room or here. This is the Room of Shelter." McGonagall said, peering at all of them from the top of her glasses. She bid them goodnight, and Harry was surprised to see his trunk already waiting at the foot of a bed. When McGonagall left, he and Arthur looked at each other, shrugged, and grinned.

"This place is so cool!" Dmitri grinned, opening his trunk and unpacking his clothes, placing them in the dresser by his bed. Hassan nodded his agreement, arranging various knickknacks on his dresser. There was a golden set of scales, a tiny pyramid, some pictures in frames (whose occupants were completely still), and a few of Hara's toys. When he'd set foot in the room, she immediately twisted herself around his feet, meowing hello.

Jotun was fast asleep on one of the posts of Lukas' bed, and Tepes had already curled up on one of the couches.

Harry, standing up from placing his pants in one of the drawers, was shocked to see Arthur pull an electric guitar out of his trunk and place it carefully by his bed.

"You know, technology doesn't work in Hogwarts." He said, and Arthur sighed.

"I know, but it feels weird being someplace without it." He smiled.

"Let me guess, Arthur. It was a phase." Lukas snorted, and Arthur stuck out his tongue at the back of Lukas' head, though he did blush. Dmitri didn't have much in the way of personal belongings. He had a few pictures, some coins and sweets, and of course his little hat. He had a feeling he wouldn't be wearing it much here, but he still brought it with. Most prominently, he had a pile of thick books on his dresser.

Arthur tossed his stuffed rabbit Lopsy on his pillow, just about ready to fall asleep on his feet. Lukas had some books as well, and when no one was looking, he slipped a small knife underneath his pillow. Just in case. He also had a few trinkets on his dresser; some pictures, a tiny stuffed puffin Emil gave him a long time ago, and a few mini dragons that prowled around, their small wings rustling like paper.

"I see you like dragons, Lukas." Harry remarked, and Lukas glared at him.

"What else am I supposed to like? Snakes?" He snapped, making a face. "No way in hell – I hate snakes." This surprised Harry greatly, though it really shouldn't have. Sure, he was in Gryffindor, but that didn't mean lions were his favorite animals.

Once they were done unpacking, they stayed up a bit later, talking casually about the year ahead.

"I still can't believe Kyle is teaching this year…" Arthur muttered.

"Kyle?" Harry asked in confusion.

"Ah, Professor Farren. He's my…uncle." Arthur explained, internally wincing. It was difficult to say, and even more difficult to think about how Kyle was older than him now. Harry nodded, finally realizing why he'd thought Farren looked familiar. They both had bright green eyes, though Kyle's appeared to be a darker shade, and they definitely shared the caterpillar eyebrows.

Ron appeared soon after that, grumbling about first years and responsibilities. After Ron had unpacked his trunk and they chatted a bit more, they all crawled into bed, nodding off one by one. Harry was the last one awake, and he was shocked to discover that Hassan snored the loudest, almost as bad as Ron. Arthur talked in his sleep. It was weird to see Lukas with a peaceful smile on his face, his normal scowl gone. Dmitri slept underneath his blankets, curled up in the fetal position.

Harry sighed, pressing his face into his pillow. This was going to be a crazy year.

* * *

><p>Alistair sighed heavily, sitting in the staff room. The Professors usually met in here after the entrance feast for other announcements and notices, and just his luck, he was sitting right next to Umbridge. If he had to hear one more girly giggle, he would not regret being carted off to Azkaban right then and there. If her plan was to drive him to insanity, it was working. He listened half-attentively as the other professors droned on about their study plans and house clubs, only really paying attention when McGonagall said his name.<p>

"Professor Kirkland, you are the one who brought these four transfer students to our attention. Will there be any problems with them? Language barriers, or other things like that?" She asked, peering at him over the top of her glasses.

"No," He shook his head, "there won't be a language issue with Arthur, Dmitri, and Lukas. Hassan, however, is a mute – we're not quite sure what happened to him, but he cannot speak. However, he's a genius at using nonverbal spells. Every spell he's used has been nonverbal, from the time he's picked up a wand to now."

"Preposterous." Severus Snape sneered. "You honestly expect us to believe that a mere boy can do nonverbal spells? Students here do not learn to do silent magic until their seventh year-"

"Yes, Severus, but Hassan hasn't been a student here. You're welcome to see him cast spells in person, if you prefer. That's one of the reasons I brought him here." Alistair cut Snape off smoothly, much to Snape's chagrin. The greasy haired man bristled in his seat, and Dolores gave another _stupid _cough. (fifth time).

"I'm afraid that Hassan will be unfit for this school, then. If you don't mind me saying, Mr. Kirkland –" Alistair barely stifled a snort here, "- students must be able to communicate with their teachers, do you not agree? Students having their own lifestyle choices is a wonderful thing, but when it interferes with their schooling, then there is an undeniable problem. Generally, those unable to speak have some sort of mental illness, and would be better suited to learn from their parents, in the safe environments of their homes." There was a very, very tense silence as her words registered in Alistair's head, and his temper reared its ugly head.

"Miss Umbridge, if you don't mind _me_ saying, you're suggesting that Hassan is mentally challenged, and therefore, does not deserve to get the same level of education as the rest of the students around him." Alistair said lowly, his blood starting to boil. A glance around showed that many of the professors around him agreed with him, as they were glaring rather forcefully at her.

"Oh no, not at all!" She laughed. "I'm merely pointing out the fact that people with mental blocks should be taught in a different fashion, away from the other happy, normal students. Children like that are not in their right minds, and when left unsupervised, could present a very real danger with the magic they cannot control."

"Okay, first of all, _Dolores_," Alistair said, getting out of his seat. He clasped his hands behind his back, pacing back and forth in front of the crackling fireplace. "Hassan is not mentally handicapped in any way. He has literally had his vocal chords ripped from his throat, and he has no parents who could teach him. He is a prodigy, and is able to use magic in the exact same way that the other, normal students can, albeit completely silently, which I can guarantee is something many of the seventh years here cannot do as well as he does. You have no physical evidence that he is deficient, nor any facts to draw that conclusion upon, other than the fact that he cannot speak."

"I was only suggesting the matter, Mr. Kirkland. As long as it does not become an issue or inhibit his learning, I'm sure he will thrive here." Umbridge said, her eyes wide, as though in disbelief that he would ever accuse her of saying such things.

"I'm sure it won't, Miss Umbridge. If you find that it does, you may speak with me, and as he is my charge, I will personally deal with it." He replied, his voice frighteningly calm. There was a moment as they stared each other down, then McGonagall cleared her throat.

"Well, that will be all. The next meeting will be on the…" Alistair wasn't listening anymore, too caught up in his fury at that foul woman to do much more than nod and walk out of the staff room, his robes billowing behind him. He stomped his way to his office, in which was a door leading to his bedroom. Once in the office, and alone, he let out a huge sigh. That had been close. How dare she say those things! Hassan was the best behaved one out of the four; Lukas, believe it or not, had a mile-long mischievous streak. And, if he was honest with himself, Hassan was going to be the most important one in accomplishing their goal. He sat down heavily in the chair behind his desk, kneading his forehead with his knuckles.

"House elf." He called, and with a loud pop, one appeared beside him, bowing low.

"How may Remy be of assistance to you, sir?" It squeaked, and he sighed once more.

"Well, Remy, I'd like you to be my personal house elf for the year." He said, and Remy beamed at him, hopping back and forth. It wasn't uncommon for teachers to pick personal house elves for themselves, and it was considered a great honor in the house elf hierarchy to be hand chosen by a professor.

"Remy would like that very much, sir!" He said happily, and Alistair had to grin. He'd forgotten how nice the house elves were, as it had been at least forty years since he'd had one of his own.

"Bring me a bowl of water, a razor, and a rag, Remy." He commanded, and Remy bowed low once more, his nose almost touching the floor before disappearing with a sharp crack. Alistair busied himself with arranging paperwork and materials for his classes on the desk. He'd had a few brilliant ideas for this subject in particular, and he couldn't wait until he could put them into action.

Remy reappeared with the objects Alistair had asked for in hand, presenting them to him.

"Thank you, Remy. I'll call if I need anything else." Alistair said warmly, Remy bouncing up and down at the praise, his bat ears flapping. The elf disappeared, and Alistair was alone once more. He was just getting used to the quietness when something else happened. The fireplace burst to life, the flames bright green. He leapt out of his chair and stared at the spinning figure in the flames, only rolling his eyes when he realized who it was.

Sadiq stepped out of the fire, brushing soot and ash off his clothes as he fixated Alistair with a powerful masked glare.

"So riddle me this, Alistair." He hissed, walking into the room and placing his hands on the desk, leaning forward. "Why did Hassan go missing three weeks ago? Not even a note of explanation. He was just gone, isn't that strange? I've been looking for him everywhere!" His voice started off as a low, accusatory growl, escalating into angry shouting very quickly.

"Yes, well, I had a feeling you wouldn't let him come with me even if I did tell you." Alistair said calmly, and Sadiq groaned, running his hands through his hair.

"Of course I wouldn't! It's dangerous for him here! You, I thought you were smarter than this, honestly!" He yelled, before turning and marching towards the door. "You can't just kidnap people like that! I'm taking him home, right now!" He was stopped by a hand clamping around his wrist, and he turned to see Alistair staring at him with eyes that danced in the firelight.

"I'm afraid that's not an option." Alistair said quietly, tightening his hold on Sadiq's wrist. "I don't think you understand the gravity of the situation, Sadiq. I need him here."

Something about the way Alistair spoke and the look in his eyes made Sadiq pause. Something was telling him to listen to Alistair, to at least hear him out. Why would he need Hassan, of all people? It wasn't as though Hassan was friendly with the Celtic nations.

"Alright. Why?" He sighed, his shoulders slumping. Alistair let go of him, gesturing to the chair in front of his desk. They both sat down, Alistair lacing his fingers together and furrowing his eyebrows. Sadiq just crossed his arms, keeping a glare on his face.

"You know that Hassan can perform magic, like my brothers and I. But I don't think you know just how much he can do." Alistair began, his voice soft, hardly louder than the crackling of the fireplace. "His silence and his magic give him a very unique set of skills that will be useful in the coming years."

"What do you mean?" Sadiq asked, his voice quiet too. There was a silence, and then…

"Voldemort's back." Alistair said, and Sadiq practically jumped out of his seat, steam coming out of his ears.

"No! No way I am allowing you to use him as a weapon in this war! This is your problem, not ours!" He shouted angrily, and Alistair gave him such a powerful glare that he sat back down, grumbling and cursing under his breath.

"I am not using him as a weapon. I am not asking him to fight in the upcoming war, because yes, there will be a war, and if we don't win, Sadiq, all of Europe will be in danger, not just Britain. I am not forcing him to fight. I do not want him to." Alistair hissed, leaning forward a bit in his seat. "But I do need him here."

"For what?" Sadiq said exasperatedly, and Alistair closed his eyes, as though thinking.

"I have reason to believe that Voldemort is able to possess Harry Potter, and act through him, put ideas in his head. Hassan has an ability that even I don't have. Observation. He is able to see the auras of those around him, and he can tell evil from good just by looking at someone. He, and only he, can tell me if my suspicions are true, and thus he is crucial in keeping Harry safe."

"You know we can't interfere with human affairs, not on this scale." Sadiq said, and Alistair shook his head.

"I'm not interfering. I'm not guiding Harry Potter, telling him what he must do, how he can defeat Voldemort, who to trust and who to fear. I'm only giving him the knowledge he can use to fight. As much as I hate to admit it, a lot rests on his shoulders, and I have a duty to protect him." He explained, and Sadiq threw his hands in the air.

"Alistair, you have no duty to anyone! What will happen, will happen, and the only thing we can do is watch. Haven't you learned by now? Getting involved only does more harm than good." He said softly, and Alistair slammed his fist on the table, gritting his teeth.

"Sadiq." He growled, narrowing his eyes to green slits. "You weren't there."

"…Uh, where?" Sadiq asked curiously, blinking behind his mask. He was slightly frightened by the crazed, almost desperate look in Alistair's eyes.

"Voldemort, in the peak of his power, was still centered in Britain. That was where he began, where he committed his most heinous crimes. You weren't there. He wasn't in your country. He didn't make you vomit gallons of blood, turn you blind and barking mad, unable to move, unable to die, unable to do anything more than scream and cry out." Alistair hissed.

"I was hit pretty hard, but Arthur was the most affected. He couldn't stop screaming. He was blind, scared, puking up his internal organs, crazy from pain. I will not let that happen again. I won't see my brother, my littlest brother, suffer like that anymore." Alistair growled, the roar of a lion just barely hiding in his words. Sadiq contemplated this, a foreign pang of sympathy for Arthur stabbing his stomach.

He had to admit, if he were in Alistair's place, he probably would be doing the exact same thing. And if Hassan would help Alistair…a sudden image of Hassan formed in his mind, all the terrible things that happened to Arthur happening to him. That was what made the decision.

"Fine. But you keep Hassan safe. If anything, anything at all happens to him, so help me, I'll strangle you with your own optic nerves." He sighed, and Alistair's shoulders slumped in relief, a pained smile on his face. They shook hands, and Sadiq stepped into the flames once more, disappearing in a loud 'whoosh'. Suddenly feeling very tired, Alistair extinguished the fire and crawled into bed, not bothering to change into his nightclothes first. He prayed he wouldn't have nightmares tonight.

* * *

><p>No such luck.<p>

* * *

><p><em>It was a dark, dimly lit room, bare of any furniture except for a mattress on the floor. The walls were a dark olive green, the carpet rusty brown. There was but one window, the setting sunlight casting golden orange shadows on everything. The room appeared to be empty of people, except for a lone figure curled up in the corner, his knees drawn up under his chin.<em>

_The door creaking open made him shakily raise his head, his messy blonde hair flopping into his eyes. His blank, white, unseeing eyes. His arms were wrapped tightly around himself, his fingers jammed into his armpits._

_Alistair stepped quietly into the room, his green eyes tired, subdued. Arthur made a cry of alarm, scooting backwards into the wall, pressing himself into it as though trying to melt into the plaster. Alistair froze, his heart, already weak these days, cracking but not shattering. Not yet. He closed the door behind him, padding with sock feet across the carpet to his little brother._

_"It's alright, Artie. It's just me, it's Alistair." He whispered softly, sitting down by Arthur with his back against the wall. He turned his head upwards, blinking blearily at the ceiling. Arthur cautiously scooted forwards, one hand unravelling from his torso to feel around. He found Alistair's hand, and held onto it tightly, a tiny grin of relief on his face._

_Alistair felt a burning, excruciating pain in his heart as Voldemort made another mass killing, but he didn't even scream. He was just too tired. Arthur, on the other hand, yanked his hand out of Alistair's, a soul-wrenching scream tearing out of his throat as he fell forwards, his forehead landing on the carpet. His hands re-wrapped around his middle, and he screamed, and screamed. And screamed. Alistair's eyes burned and prickled, and he couldn't do anything more than grab Arthur and hold him tight against his chest, shakily drawing in breath after breath._

_"It's alright, Artie, I've got you." He mumbled, feeling a tear trickle down his cheek. He lightly kissed Arthur's matted and dirty hair, holding his shaking and trembling frame as tight as he could. Arthur kept screaming. "I-I've got you, you'll be okay, Artie, you'll be alright, don't, please just stop screaming, I've got you…"Alistair trailed off, blinking furiously._

_"I…" He swallowed thickly, not sure Arthur could even hear him, not sure he wanted to be comforted, but he had to say it. If he didn't say it, it would eat away at him. "I-I'm sorry, Artie, I'm so sorry…please, please, find it somewhere in your heart to forgive me, your stupid, foolish big brother, I-I didn't know, I just…I'd hoped the humans could take care of it, I was lazy, forgive me, Artie, I should have known we couldn't trust them, I'm so sorry, Artie…"_

_Before he knew it, he was sobbing, tears pouring down his face. Arthur was still screaming, still crying, still shaking and blind and scared and so very hurt, and Alistair could do nothing._

_"Artie, please, I'm so sorry, I know I never say this and I know I should say it more, I love you Artie, don't die, oh God, please, please don't die!" He cried hoarsely, pressing Arthur's face into his shoulder. He didn't care that Arthur had blood dribbling out of his mouth, which was now dripping out onto Alistair's shirt. He didn't care about what was happening outside the walls of this room. He just wanted Arthur to stop screaming. To stop hurting._

_"A-Alba…" Arthur cried, his voice thick with pain and blood._

_"I'm so sorry Albion, I love you, I don't tell you that enough, but oh my God I love you, I can't lose you, not you, not my baby brother, no, please, I'm sorry, just please, please, live though this, please…!" Alistair sobbed, barely able to form words anymore. They sat there in that dark room, Alistair holding onto Arthur for dear life, both of them screaming for relief from the pain burning in their hearts._

* * *

><p>"Sir, sir wake up! Sir is having a nightmare, sir is!" A squeaky, worried voice jolted Alistair out of his dreamnightmare/memory, and he bolted upright, panting. Remy was staring at him worriedly, one hand raised and Alistair had the feeling that the little elf had shaken him awake. Upon realizing what had happened, he groaned and ran his hand down his face.

"What time is it?" He mumbled, feeling to his surprise, both new and dried tears on his face.

"It's nearly midnight, it is." Remy said, looking thoroughly concerned for his master. "I was coming in here to clean and stoke the fire, but I heard you crying out and mumbling in your sleep, so I thinks, 'Master is having bad nightmare!', so I wake you up." He explained, looking up at Alistair with wide eyes.

"Thank you, Remy." Alistair sighed, throwing the covers off himself and swinging his feet over the edge of the bed. Remy leapt aside for him, turning away when Alistair changed into his proper nightclothes, having fallen asleep in his robes and jeans.

"Does Master want to talk about it?" Remy asked, and Alistair sighed, running his hand through his hair – and old habit that was going to drive him bald one day.

"No." He said quietly, walking (more like stumbling) over to his bed and flopping down on the mattress. It wasn't like he could explain it to Remy anyways. _Yeah, by the way, my brothers and I are the personifications of the ground you walk on, and Voldemort killing people all those years ago caused us indescribable pain, and my brother was the most affected by it, and I was having a flashback of him screaming and crying and puking blood all over me, sorry if I worried you._ Somehow, he had a feeling Remy wouldn't believe him.

Remy respected Alistair's unspoken wish to be left alone, and continued to clean the room, his bare feet completely silent on the hard wood floor. Alistair had a vague thought that he should personalize his office at some point if he was going to be here for a whole year, and resolved to do it after classes tomorrow.

No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't fall back asleep, that memory haunting him. Remy finished cleaning, and had disappeared not too long ago, stepping outside the office before leaving with a loud crack. Alistair was sure it was around two in the morning now, and he contemplated just getting up for the day, as they could function on less sleep than normal humans. He swung his feet off the bed, and walked to the window. He drew back the curtains, and just let the moon light beam on his face for a few moments, a cool breeze ruffling his hair.

"Aria." He whispered to the night, and as quick as a shadow, she glided into the room. The pure white and gold Enfield sat primly in the middle of the room, wrapping her tail around her feet. Alistair smiled faintly. He still couldn't believe he'd found one of these in the Magical Menagerie, of all places. It had been so long since he'd seen one, much less kept one. Enfields were raptor/fox hybrids, with the bodies of foxes, protowings, talons for forelegs, paws for hindlegs, and a beautiful crest of feathers on their heads.

Foxes had always been his favorite animals; people had often said he resembled one, with his pointed face, red hair, and mischievous and cunning demeanor. He took those sayings as compliments. Alistair climbed back into bed and pulled the covers around himself. Aria, without needing to be told, hopped up next to him and curled up, her tail over her nose. Her back was pressed against his torso, and her warmth and calming presence soon pulled him into a shaky, dreamless sleep.

"Goodnight, Aria."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: If any of you got the reference with the lady in the Room of Shelter's painting and the password, you will earn one million internet cookies and my deepest respect. **

**I want an Enfield of my own so badly! Please leave a review of whether or not I wrote Umbridge right! Next chapter is Kyle's first lesson as a teacher, an explanation of that weird ass smoke, and Lukas kicking the asses of all the other Slytherins. He's going to whip these kids into shape. **

**Review please! I love you all! Merry Christmas! **

**Or whatever holiday you celebrate this time of year, have a good one!**

**(Seriously hoping I'm getting a Scouting Legion jacket...)**


	5. DO NOT PANIC

A/N:

Hi guys! I am so sorry to inform you of this (don't panic, I'm not abandoning you! I would never!), but I did something incredibly stupid and now I am grounded for an undefined amount of time, which means that I am not allowed to work on this story. So consider this hiatus for now, and thank you all so much for your reviews and patience and love! Let's hope I get ungrounded soon!


End file.
